Written for: dVerse Poets Pub – Meeting The Bar: Iambic Pentameter (posted by Frank)
“The challenge today is to write lines of iambic pentameter, lines with five iambic feet. They do not have to rhyme. They do not have to have exactly 10 syllables per line. They do not have to be perfectly iambic in rhythm allowing some variety. The poem can be a named form like a couplet or a Chaucerian stanza or a sonnet or it may be blank verse of only one line or many. For length, let’s restrict them to 14 lines or shorter, allowing for a sonnet.”
She wandered ‘cross the lacy foam of shore
Her toes cupped ‘round the mud strip of sand
where tiny shells lay glistening as in days of yore.
She held an object cradled in her hand
which made her heart beat quicken, so unlike
her usual soothing calmness at a beach.
A pledge was sworn between the two one night
if one should die before marriage is reached
the one who’s left, would toss their shell to sea.
He fought a war that never could be won,
and died on foreign soil, his mother’s only son.
She tossed their pearly shell and tears did stream.
A sense of peace imbued her like a hug,
Their pledge was carried out with tender love.
A tragic tale, well told.
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Thanks, VJ!
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Love the technique of shortening words. Reminds me of Shakespeare himself. 🙂
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blush, blush. Thank you so much for that over-the-top comment.
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there’s a pitch and tempo to your lines that is mesmerising Sara
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Thanks so much, Gina!
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That pledge was one that should never been fulfilled…. sad and double sad.
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Sad, but fulfilled.
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Very nice tale told as a sonnet. In particular I liked this line, both sound and sense: “the one who’s left, would toss their shell to sea.”
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Thanks, Frank!
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What a beautiful story, and told so well in this form.
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Thanks, Lynda!
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Good read…loved the sea shell story and where it took me.
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Thanks, Kathy!
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A tragically beautiful love song to the rhythm of waves…I like the sense of peace at the end.
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Thanks, Lynn!
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