John Donne: Poem analysis » A Hymn to God, my God, in my Sicknesse » Structure and versification in Hymn to God, my God

The poem is written in iambic pentameter quintains, an unusual stanza form for Donne. The rhyming is ababb, enabling each stanza to end in a rhyming couplet. Here the effect is of completion and assurance. The sentence structures move unhurriedly through the stanzas, concluding neatly at the end of each. The argument thus moves on slowly but logically, perfectly controlled. The reader may feel that if we could be as much in control of our dying as Donne, we should die well pleased.