The Celestial Bier is a poetic narrative concerning death, originating in The Regulation of Maize. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is a single couplet. Each line has eight syllables. The ending of each line of the poem shares the same rhyme. The second line of the couplet presents a different view of the subject of the first line. The second line of the couplet must expand the idea of the first line. The first line is intended to make an assertion. It must make use of assonance. The second line is intended to undercut the previous assertion. It must make use of assonance.