The poem is a single stanza of four, cross rhymed quatrains. Each line is written in very regular iambic pentameter: lines of ten syllables with five stressed beats alternating with unstressed beats. Only a single line (‘And went outside and slashed with fury with it) breaks the pattern of ending on a stressed syllable – sometimes called a ‘feminine’ ending. When iambic pentameter is used so regularly it achieves a very steady, relentless rhythm, helped here by the simple rhyme scheme abab. This is another decision to relate the story in simplicity and most of the rhyme words are monosyllables with simple, everyday meanings – shed, bed, tears, skin.