i am now finding a problem in learning new songs. Can't get them to stick.
I certainly would learn words and melody together and if I had a possible verse for a new song I would hang it temporarily on a familiar tune (and vice versa). As above a ballad is much easier than a set of verses with no link or progression. For the life of me I couldn't learn Snows They Melt the Soonest until I had the idea to transpose the middle two verses which gave a link and so a cue and no bother ever since.