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 1^st is taken up and used as the main rhyme in the 2^nd, and ‘midair’ from the 2^nd used in the next one and so on.  The last stanza loops back to the rhyme of the 1^st. 

Posted for the A-Z Challenge.