A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

Rich’s “Valediction” consists of six stanzas of unrhymed free verse. Free verse is an umbrella term for poetic forms that do not participate in traditional rule of rhyme and meter. Free verse gained prominence in American poetry after Walt Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass popularized the form. The form is popular among experimental and lyrical writers for its flexibility. Unlike prescriptive poetic forms like the sonnet, free verse allows the poet to shape the work’s line length, meter, and use of rhyme around the poem’s subjects and themes.

Free verse’s flexibility also allows a single work of poetry to shift between forms. The two lines of “Valediction” alternate between tetrameter (four metrical feet per line) and trimeter (three metrical feet per line). Though the metrical feet in the second line “[t]he grammar turned and attacked me” (Line 2) is irregular, the move from four stresses to three stresses reflects traditional ballad meter. Ballad meter, also known as common meter, gives the poem a less elevated tone than the consistent iambic tetrameter of Donne's poem. Like the speaker’s preference for busses and “plastic wreaths” (Line 11, See: Poem Analysis) over metaphor, Rich’s use of ballad meter frames the work as accessible and unpretentious.

Rich’s simple language and syntax—other than when she turns to literary terms—also resists the pretensions of canonical poetry. The speaker’s short sentences and conversational tone reflects the poem’s intersectional aims (See: Background). The single end rhyme “say” (Line 17) and “way” (Line 18) finish the poem in a rhyming couplet divided by a stanza break. This divided couplet gives the work a sense of finality while also pointing toward the literal gap between the speaker and their ability to express themselves through poetic convention.