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In “Valediction,” Donne uses alternating rhymes, which results in the following overall rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF and so on. Donne’s rhymes are almost all exact, and they all exemplify so-called masculine rhyme, which means they all fall on the final stressed syllable of each line. A couple of inexact (or slant) rhymes do appear in the poem. One example, from the fourth stanza, features the pairing of “love” and “remove” (lines 13 and 15)—two words that look like they rhyme but in fact do not. Another inexact rhyme pair appears in the sixth stanza: “yet” and “beat” (lines 22 and 24). Other than these two examples, all other rhymes in the poem are exact. From a pragmatic perspective, Donne’s general preference for exact rhymes helps the reader maintain focus on the speaker’s intricate conceits. Occasionally, however, Donne exploits rhyme in ways that cleverly underscore his metaphorical images. Perhaps his most exuberant use of rhyme in the entire poem also appears in the sixth stanza (lines 21–24):

     Our two souls therefore, which are one,
        Though I must go, endure not yet
     A breach, but an expansion,
        Like gold to airy thinness beat.

Although it may not look like “one” and “expansion” will rhyme, they do—but only because Donne uses meter to expand the word “expansion” into four syllables: “ex-pan-si-on.”

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