I think it's an Audenesque free form alluding to the elegiac distich, so
Auden can substitute what he wants as he wants, just as you'd have some
trouble metrically analysing every line in the _Duineser Elegien_, which
were clearly his model here. I've no doubt that if you saw some of Rilke's
substitutions there you'd find similar inconsistencies. So what? So the line
changes length. Stuff 3rd paeons into a peacock's arse, Trimalchio would
have loved it.
Martin
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