Structure and versification in Elegie

The verse form of Elegie is non-stanzaic, consisting of iambic pentameter lines rhyming as couplets. However, as the sense does not fit into those couplets, it has not yet arrived at the Heroic couplets of the later seventeenth century. In fact, the number of run-on lines is very high, giving the verse a much more flexible feel to it. It is focused without being unnaturally polished. There is some sense of spontaneity in it, enough to give us the sense of Carew's own emotions coming through.

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