Absalom and Achitophel

“Absalom and Achitophel” is a satiric narrative poem written in heroic couplets, a meter for which Dryden is especially well-known. This formal element is deceptively simple; the poem is written in iambic pentameter (each line with five metrical feet, each foot made of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable) and follows an AABB rhyme scheme. However, the element’s full complexity emerges only in light of its literary lineage. Heroic couplets are an English imitation of the type of verse used in ancient Greek and Roman epics, revealing the literary influence of classical texts such as Virgil’s Aeneid—but, while the epics of Greece and Rome were serious and celebratory in subject matter, Dryden’s heroic couplets create a comedic effect: The elevated, “classical” metrical style forms a humorous contrast with the mocking tone of the subject matter. The heroic couplets are thereby a vehicle for Dryden’s signature wit, and the poem establishes a layered irony from the outset as the lofty couplets relay the apparently illustrious philandering of King David; the propriety of the couplets pairs with the superficial laudation (“Ere one to one was cursedly confin’d” [Line 4]) to produce an exacting and only half veiled sardonicism.