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Donne wrote “Valediction” in iambic tetrameter, which means that each line consists of four iambs. (Recall that an iamb is a metrical foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word “for-bid.”) The choice to use an iambic meter was a conventional one, since most other poets of Donne’s time tended to write in iambic rhythm. This choice largely stemmed from the fact that the English language sounds naturally iambic, which in turn gives the verse a more grounded feeling. Perhaps more significant is Donne’s choice to write in tetrameter rather than pentameter. Compared to the slightly longer five-foot line, the four-foot line tends to have more of a sing-song quality. This distinction has often led to a division in usage. Whereas pentameter is typically used reserved for more serious subjects, tetrameter is used for more mundane and playful subjects. In Donne’s case, the use of iambic tetrameter undercuts the seriousness of the subject matter. As such, it has a consoling effect, indicating that the parting of two lovers is no big deal.

Donne occasionally came under fire from his contemporaries for his loose adherence to metrical regularity, but in “Valediction” he generally maintains a regular meter. As an example, consider the opening quatrain (lines 1–4):

     As virt- / u-ous men / pass mild- / ly a-way,
        And whis- / per to / their souls / to go,
     Whilst some / of their / sad friends / do say
        The breath / goes now, / and some / say, No:

The only line in this stanza that deviates from strict iambic tetrameter is the opening line. This is a pattern that continues throughout the poem, many of whose quatrains feature a similar deviation in the first line. As the scansion in the above passage suggests, the first line in the opening stanza features an anapest (unstressed–unstressed–stressed) in the second and fourth feet. That said, in both cases it would be easy force the line into iambic rhythm simply by eliding vowel sounds as follows: “As virt- / uous men / pass mild- / lya-way.” In this version, the extra syllables are barely audible, much like the breath of a virtuous man who dies in near silence. Similar deviations appear elsewhere in the poem, with equally subtle effects. For instance, consider line 23: “A breach, but an / ex-pan- / si-on.” Whereas in the example above Donne encourages us to shorten words by eliding vowels, here he forces the three-syllable word “ex-pan-sion” itself to expand into the four-syllable “ex-pan-si-on.”

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