I was listening to some troubadour songs from Aragon and thought of this thread. Many of them go on and on. Some of these XIII C. songs are preserved with their musical scores. Noted in the music are breaks in the narration, with solo or group instrument melody between verses.
Some polyphonic music of the same period is intermixed with spoken verses.

In any case, a musical break, or a brief spoken piece that furthers the lyric's story, may be one answer.

I appologise if this has been posted before; I have not read every post in this long thread.