Shows how poets' mastery of heroic couples gives the lie to contemporary scorn for highly formal genres. Assumptions about the eighteenth century and the heroic couplet verse; Analysis of the heroic couplet form in Thom Gunn's `Lament,' Derek Mahon's `Yaddo Letter,' and Derek Walcott's `The Spoiler's Return'; Elegant balance of humility and arrogance, erudition, and earthiness.