Great Regulars: The choice of linked quatrains thickens the plot.

[Esther Greenleaf] Mürer triples the mono-rhyme in each stanza, and each first line of a new stanza recovers, with minor variations, the refrain from the last line of the previous one: hence, the "chain" effect. That repetition, although it crosses the stanza break, gives a rather "bluesy" feel to this ghazal. In fact, the fourth stanza talks about the "blues", including the word in its trio of rhymes, and about how walking cures them. It's almost as if the poem spliced two genres: the ghazal and the blues. Even without that direct reference, you'd hear the slightly mournful undertone to the jauntiness.

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Chain Ghazal: Chickens by Esther Greenleaf Mürer

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