Epilogue

Lowell’s “Epilogue” is written in true free verse. The poem is not restricted by meter, foot, or end rhyme, nor is it organized by any formal structure. However, the opening line of the poem is loudly composed in traditional meter. Lowell calls special attention to this metered line by using the archaic double-syllable “blessèd” to fit the iambic structure (“those BLESS/èd STRUCT/ures, PLOT/ and RHYME”) (Line 1). This humorous line follows traditional poetic craft even as it describes it, but it is quickly interrupted by the irregular “WHY are /THEY no/ HELP TO /ME now” (Line 2). The first two feet of this line are in trochaic, though the rhythm serves only to disrupt the rhythm established in the first line, inverting the stress and unstressed syllables of the iambs as they do.

Lowell continues this practice of modulating between irregular, open verse and traditional meter throughout the poem. When the speaker recalls his own statement on art, the activity of the painter’s vision is written in regular iambic: “it TREM/bles TO/ caRESS/ the LIGHT” (Line 7). This use of iambic tetrameter (mirroring the first line’s meter) infuses the speaker’s remembered statement with gravitas and dignity, with “the grace of accuracy” (Line 16).