The Egocentric Lilac is a poetic narrative intended to satirize the past, originating in The Saltpeter of Rhapsodies. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is three quintains. Use of internal rhyme is characteristic of the form. A form of parallelism is common throughout the poem, in that certain lines reverse grammatical structures. Each line has nine syllables. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABCAB.