Incremental Poetry ~ 18 Lines

The Spur of Love

He held her close and softly spoke,
he softly, softly, softly spoke—
upon his words he nearly choked,
upon this sad goodbye.

They said farewell through misty eyes,
through misty, misty, misty eyes—
this parting was a harsh surprise,
this parting pitiless.

Then he began to vainly guess,
to vainly, vainly, vainly guess
when he would feel her next caress,
when he could love confer.

God bless the goading, prickling spur,
the prickling, prickling, prickling spur—
three words he longed to say to her,
three words she longed to hear….

He held her close and softly spoke
three words she longed to hear.

Copyright © 2018 Abigail Gronway – All Rights Reserved

Welcome to my series, Incremental Poetry, where each week the featured poem will be one line longer than the one I share the week before. I have no idea how long I’ll keep this up, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Thank you for stopping by.

Scansion:
Rhyming Wave
Created by Katharine L. Sparrow of AllPoetry.com
A poem consisting of 2 or more quatrains plus an ending couplet
L1, L2, L3 = iambic tetrameter; L4 = iambic trimeter
Rhyme scheme: AAab BBbc CCcd DDde AE, where capital letters represent refrain lines.
The technique is intended to mimic the lapping of waves upon the seashore, but it is easier to demonstrate than to explain.