The poem is written in free verse. The original, in Polish, contained some end rhymes, but Milosz, who translated the poem himself, did not use end rhyme in the English version. However, he does use other stylistic devices: there is alliteration, for example in lines 5 and 6. The "f," "p," and "t" sounds in the "fall of States and the perdition of tribes" are echoed in the same order in the following line by the "flight of kings and emperors and the power of tyrants." Alliteration occurs again in "tall mounds of termites" in line 14 and in lines 17 and 18 with "dawn" and "-down," words that are close enough in sound to create an imperfect rhyme (also known as near or partial rhyme), in which the consonants are identical but the vowels differ.

The stanzas vary in length from four to six lines, with one two-line stanza at the end...