Thursday 10 April 2014

commIt thIs to memory




is for Interlocking




Poetry has existed long before widespread literacy and even writing, the earliest poems were chanted rather than read off pages and screens, in fact rhymes themselves and poetry evolved from the need to commit things to memory.  So anything that helped memorisation along was welcome.  Interlocking is a technique that helps with that. 






The feast is ready call the guests
the groom is keen, the bride is dressed
her henna’s deep, her step is light
her love is large, her doubts suppressed.


Who tiptoes in from the dark night?
his face is masked, his pistols bright
the talk’s cut off, frozen midair
laughter abruptly clamped up tight.


The father calls out, “who goes there?”
The mother mumbles a quick prayer,
the groom’s suddenly pale and stressed
the wedding guests whisper and stare.



Can you spot the pattern? Interlocking is a rhyme carried over from a previous stanza to the next.  Technically, the rhyme scheme here is aaba bbcb ccac.  Here, the ‘light’ from the 1st is taken up and used as the main rhyme in the 2nd, and ‘midair’ from the 2nd used in the next one and so on.  The last stanza loops back to the rhyme of the 1st






Posted for the A-Z Challenge.



4 comments:

  1. I'm liking this form :D makes me want to sing out the wedding song narrated :D

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  2. Such fun and the imagery for the wedding spot on!

    I might even be able to write a poem using interlocking!

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  3. This interlocking method seems interesting!

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  4. What an interesting technique! I can't say I've ever noticed that in poetry before.

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