Comment on the structure of The Good Morrow

 

Comment on the structure of The Good Morrow

Ans. "The Good-Morrow" consists of three stanzas. Each stanza has seven lines. The first six lines of each stanza are in iambic pentameter. The seventh line of each stanza is in iambic hexameter. In other words each of the first six lines has ten syllables which are alternately accented and each of the seventh lines has twelve syllables which are also alternately accented. The stanza pattern used in "The Good-Morrow" is called rhyme royal. However, there is a variation in it. A rhyme royal consists of seven lines which are composed in iambic pentameter. The lines rhyme as ababbcc. But Donne has used six iambic pentameter lines followed by an iambic hexameter line. Further, instead of ababbcc he has used ababccc. It is evident that Donne ignored the Elizabethan structure of rhyme royal and innovated his own structure.