I strugged for a long time to give this poem a final verse, and I couldn't. So the poem I actually submitted, which won first place in the Poetry Revel, was just the first four verses. I was driving home up Route 3, a couple of weeks later, and the last verse just came to me.

I wrote this poem to music, specifically Celtic music. I just happened to have the CD playing, and the strong rhythms carried over into the poetry. If you're having problems with your meter, why not try it? Put on some music with a good strong rhythm (ethnic or folk music is good) and settle down to write.

Honor's Price is far from technically perfect. You'll notice a few lines with a syllable too many or two few, and the stress in the last line is all wrong. The last verse is a set off a bit from the rest of the poem by its internal rhymes in the first and third lines. If you're going to do something odd, do it in the last verse, where it will add impact.