 The final verse, containing all three metrical devices, is not, argues Massengale, an example of "decay", but shows Bellman's freedom, change of focus (from lament to acceptance), and the closure of the Epistle.The literary historian Lars Warme observes that a Bellman Epistle "is related to a drinking song only by derivation.As an artistic achievement [the form] stands alone in the history of Swedish poetry."