She galloped with great urgency
upon her horse,
an awesome force,
to further the insurgency.
She spread the news
as war ensues.
Unheralded, this patriot,
like Paul Revere,
with danger near,
was ready, although long forgot.
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Author Notes
Another eclectic statue from that engaging Sculpture Garden in Minnetrista, Mn. that inspired this ekphrastic verse.
It is not well known, but there were more riders the night of "the eighteenth of April of '75," and some were actually women. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized only one in his poem "The Midnight Ride." The rest are long forgotten. So, here's to the forgotten female patriot. Of course, you British patrons may have a different term for her.
This poem is an Amphion.
An Amphion is another 20th century American verse form created by Viola Berg. It alternates enveloping tetrameter lines with coupled dimeter lines in a set sequence. The rules of an Amphion are :
1. A poem of 10 lines.
2. An iambic metered poem with tetrameter lines that alternate with sets of dimeter couplets in an enveloping manner.
3. Rhyme scheme: abbaccdeed
4. Syllabic, with a syllable count of: 8,4,4,8,4,4,8,4,4,8
This is not to be confused with the poem "Amphion," by Alfred Lord Tennyson, which was not a format, but a poem that is about a Greek god of that same name. This is a format.
This photograph was taken by the author himself on September 30, 2017.
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