a song where it might work here, a repeat of the very first line, is adieu sweet lovely nancy, the first line starts as a farewell, furthermore the chord progression ends on the tonic giving a finished sound.
a repeat of the first verse of hard times of old england is not nosensencial, in hard times of old england by ding so, it changes from a note of optimism to one of reflecting back on the situation but it is not nonsense, neither is a repeat of the the first verse candlelight fishermen, so there will always be exceptions where it will work.
It is about analysing the lyrics beforehand and giving it some thought.