[Glenn Wright]

Wow! That was fast, Roger! Your response came less than a half-hour from my posting!
I liked your observation about the corpses. You’re quite correct that we are the corpses—not the objects. The fix was an easy one, but I think it greatly clarified the intent and logic of the poem.
As for the couplets, it seemed to me that even though Borges chose to write about some objects for which he once had emotional attachment (the withered violet, for example) most of the objects seem very pedestrian. His intent seemed to me to be more universally philosophical than deeply personal. In English philosophical poetry, closed pentameter couplets (à la Pope or Dryden) are a natural choice to signal this tone. I liked highlighting the contrast between personal (sonnet) and impersonal (couplets) that the poem presented.