Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave

“Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” is a lyrical ballad that follows the rhyme scheme A-B-C-C-C-B. The strict rhyme scheme creates a sense of predictable rhythm for the poem that mirrors the repetition (and gradual predictability) of the poem’s theme: The speaker discovers that each of her former ties is forgetting about her and that no one wishes to visit her grave. More importantly, the delayed rhyme between the second and sixth lines in every stanza (the “B” line rhymes) complements the twist featured in each stanza’s closing lines with their stinging revelations. The accompanying delayed “B” rhyme has the effect of a punch line. The poem’s form and meter thus create a build-up of tension in each stanza that culminates in a sense of mocking finality.

Commoratio is a rhetorical device in which the same idea is repeated using slightly different wording each time. In this poem, the opening lines of each stanza feature different wording about someone digging on the speaker’s grave: “Ah, are you digging on my grave” (Line 1); “Then who is digging on my grave” (Line 7); “But someone digs upon my grave?” (Line 13); “Then who is digging on my grave?” (Line 19); “Ah yes! You dig upon my grave.