The Land of Counterpane

The structure of “The Land of Counterpane” consists of four quatrains, meaning four groupings of four lines each. Each stanza also features two rhymed couplets. A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines forming a single unit and also typically featuring the same meter. The first two lines of each stanza rhyme, and the third and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. Each rhyming pair could also be categorized as masculine rhyme, meaning that the rhyme occurs on the final stressed syllable. For example, the first couplet ends with “a-bed” and “head,” rhyming on the short “e” sound. The second couplet ends with “lay” and “day,” rhyming the long “a” sound.

Besides rhyme and structure, each line also contains a specific meter. Each line is written in iambic tetrameter, meaning each line contains four units of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, the first two lines are broken down in the following pattern of unstressed and stressed components: “When I was sick and lay a bed / I had two pillows at my head” (Lines 1-2). This same pattern repeats throughout all 16 lines of the poem.