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 “Funeral Blues” features a highly regular rhyme scheme. Each quatrain follows the same strict AABB rhyme pattern. This is a very traditional pattern that, when used in concert with iambic pentameter, forms what is known as heroic couplets. Auden’s couplets approximate the heroic couplet form insofar as they are generally iambic. However, the metrical variability described in our essay on meter also undermines the feeling of “heroic” nobility often associated with rhyming iambic pentameter. As an example, consider the final quatrain, where the simplicity, exactness, and regularity of the rhymes contrasts with the shifting meter (lines 13–16):

The stars / are not wan-/ ted now; put / out ev- / ery one,
Pack up / the moon / and dis-mant-/ le the sun,
Pour a- / way the / o-cean / and sweep / up the wood;
For no- / thing now / can e- / ver come / to a- / ny good.

This quatrain features a mix of tetrameter, pentameter, and hexameter lines, as well as a jumble of different metrical feet, including iambs, trochees, and anapests. What results is a generative tension between Auden’s use of meter and rhyme. Whereas the metrical variability evokes a disturbing sense of instability, the rhyme scheme’s regularity offers a reassuring counterpoint. This tension between meter and rhyme suggests that, despite the acute feelings of grief and loss that have unsettled the speaker, an underlying sense of order and stability may yet prevail.

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