A few weeks ago at my poetry workshop I was challenged to write a double dactyl. I still haven't managed to do it, so now I'm giving myself a deadline in the hopes that I'll think of something.
A double dactyl consists of two quatrains in this form:
So, there's your challenge. Write a double dactyl (or two) and leave me a note about your poem. I'll post the results here later this week.
A double dactyl consists of two quatrains in this form:
1 - double dactyl nonsense phrase (like Higgeldy Piggeldy)Here are some other helpful notes.
2 - double dactyl of a person's name
3 - double dactyl
4 - one dactyl plus a stressed syllable (/ _ _ / )
5 - double dactyl
6 - double dactyl
7 - double dactyl
8 - one dactyl plus a stressed syllable (/ _ _ / )
- A dactyl contains three syllables, one stressed followed by two unstressed (/ _ _ ).
- Somewhere in the second stanza is a double dactyl formed by a single word (usually).
- The last lines of the quatrains (4 and 8) must rhyme.
- Like the clerihew, these are generally written about famous people and are meant to be humorous.
Higgledy-PiggledyIf my notes aren't helpful, you can find a description of double dactyls at Poetry Base and Everything2.com.
Hans Christian Andersen
Wrote of a mermaid who
Swam up on shore.
There she became somewhat
Less than amphibious;
Drowned in the sea-foam 'mid
Morals galore.
So, there's your challenge. Write a double dactyl (or two) and leave me a note about your poem. I'll post the results here later this week.
A Midsummer Night's Press published a murder mystery told in 66 consecutive double dactyls:
ReplyDeleteTHE GOOD-NEIGHBOR POLICY: A DOUBLE-CROSS IN DOUBLE DACTYLS by Charles Ardai
:-)
www.amidsummernightspress.com
Knowledge, Ltd.
ReplyDeleteA slight diversion from your rules, Tricia, but here's a double dactyl:
Higgledy-piggledy,
Quantumechanical
Physicist Heisenberg
Wrote a new Planck,
Constantly stressed the Un-
Certainty Principle,
Leaving some scientists
Drawing a blank.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI posted two double dactyls over at Political Verses last week--one written by me and another written by Julie Larios. Neither includes the name of a famous individual. Here are the URLs:
http://politicalverses.blogspot.com/2009/10/god-goalpost-and-gimme-scriptures.html
http://politicalverses.blogspot.com/2009/10/double-dactyl-by-julie-larios.html
Several years ago, at the 50th annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, someone got up and read an entire history of the society in a chain of double dactyls. After a long day of serious academic papers, it caused uproarious laughter. I'll get to work on this!
ReplyDeleteWell, it's true, my double dactyl over at Political Verses doesn't have the name of a famous individual, but it does have the name of a crazy football team...does that count? And I'm proud to say that I came up with a tortured dactylic six-syllable single word ("Fort-Oglethorpishly"?)that pleased me. When I was learning about double dactyls, the six-syllable single word was always the shining light of the poem (and John Hollander, who promoted this form, said that once a six-syllable word had been used, it was off the table - couldn't be used again. So those words can get very creative....)
ReplyDeleteOkay - here is another, though it can't hold a candle to Pat Lewis's example (above) which is pure genius.
Diggery Dockery
Emily Dickinson
wrote about Nobody,
frigates and fame.
Flies in most poetry
non-metaphorically
buzz us, but Emily's
flies aren't the same.
(I'll try to come up with some others...) Fun, Tricia! Thanks.
Oops - I made an assumption that the "Pat" who contributed earlier was Pat Lewis, but I take that back. Pat-Whoever - that is a brilliant contribution/ I love the "quantumechanically" line.
ReplyDeleteAbout the last lines of each quatrain - a double spondee would mean four stressed syllables in a row. That's not what's happening. It's a dactyl plus a single stressed syllable to cap it off, no?
Okay, this is really fun! Here are my experiments with double dactyls:
ReplyDeleteDaisies and daffodils
Eleanor Roosevelt
Rode on a bicycle
Down to the lake.
Sixty-four suffragettes
Galloped behind her as
Eleanor taught them to
Make no mistake.
********
Laggardy-Saggardy
Jefferson Cavendish
Fiddled and faddled and
Loitered and whined.
Ravenous tigers came
Leaping to eat him, so
Jefferson learned how to
Move his behind.
********
Camouflage-Sophophage,
Benjamin Rosenbaum
Lounges in Switzerland
Writing a book.
Characters circle him
Polymorphetically,
Tugging at strangenesses,
Whispering, "Look!"
--Kate Coombs (Book Aunt)
That last is about a writer of speculative fiction. He calls himself a sophophage, among other things. And yes, I varied the form here and there!
Kate, those are fabulous! Love "polymorphetically" and the galloping suffragettes!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie! I have to tell you that I thought about writing one on Emily Dickinson, so I was pleased to see yours--and amazed you were able to address her fly poem in this particular poetic structure!
ReplyDeleteThis one is inspired by the latest dinosaur book I'm reading with my 8-year old (just shoot me now ...)
ReplyDeleteScarety Rarity
Quetzalcoatlus the
Mexican dinosaur
what a surprise!
Pterosaur terrible
wings unbelievable
ultrareptilian
king of the skies!
Okay, I'll admit I cheated after the name with the word the. Just in case you need the pronunciation, it's KET-sahl-koh-AHT-lus.
I need to work on this... thinking... thinking...
Great double dactyls, everyone!
ReplyDeleteI decided to write a couple of double dactyls about characters from children's books.
Higgeldy piggeldy
Max was a "wild thing,"
Got into mischief,
Was sent to his room,
Kicked up a rumpus
With like-minded wild things.
Some kiddies go crazy
Once they leave the womb.
Hickory dickory
Charlotte Arachnid--
A writer, a weaver--
Spun tales for her friend,
Wilbur, the runt pig,
She nurtured and cherished.
That spider was loyal
And true to the end.
Well, I chose Emily before reading the comments.
ReplyDeleteHiggledy-Piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Dressed all in white while she
Eschewed all prose.
Scribbling poems that
Nobody would publish
That all could be sung to
The song “Yellow Rose.”
Internet Spinternet
ReplyDeleteTricia the blogerette
poses her poem posts
into the sky.
Teachers, librarians,
mothers, grammarians
gather words gratefully.
“This one I’ll try.”
I love these! Here are a few more, inspired by Halloween reading, teaching my undergrads music history, and my son's favorite book on inventions, respectively.
ReplyDeleteTippety Typety
Poe (Edgar Allen)
Sat down at his desk
At a quarter past four.
Moaning and groaning
And clutching his stomach
“Oh WHY did I eat so much
crow? NEVERMORE!”
---
Knickety Knockety
Ludwig von Beethoven
Wanted to write just one
Symphony more
In want of ideas, he
Sat down to ponder,
When “Dum dum dum DUM”
Came a rap at the door.
---
Flippety Flappety
Orville and Wilbur, they
Wanted to ride a bike
Into the sky.
They fiddled and tinkered,
Fell over and over.
They made some mistakes, sure.
But now we can fly!
Hi Tricia ~ First foray into double dactyl and first post on your blog. Double challenge! This was inspired by a Poetry Alive! post on Facebook about Coleridge.
ReplyDeleteXanadu Shmanadu
Samuel Coleridge
created his Kubla
throughout the night.
But oh! the intruder
a damsel from Porlock
who found the poor poet
high as a kite.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteHere's another double dactyl for you:
Gravity savity
Isaac, Sir, Newton,
Math’matical genius
And physicist too,
Got into alchemy…
Transmutability…
Tried making gold
From a base metal brew.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI'm ba-a-a-a-a-ck...with another double dactyl over at Political Verses:
Better Duck...It's Dick: A Poem about Dick Cheney's Hunting Prowess
http://politicalverses.blogspot.com/2009/10/better-duckits-dick-poem-about-dick.html
Elaine: "Better Duck...It's Dick" has got to be one of the best poem titles of the new millenium.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie. I'm a sucker for a catchy title--or one with a play on words.
ReplyDeleteLove these! I actually wrote one, didn't think I could.
ReplyDeleteholy guacamole
author Judy Schachner
Siamese, not chihuahua
Skippyjon plots
he bounces big boy bed
closet is planet Mars
perritos amigos
books checked out lots
Revised:
ReplyDeleteholy guacamole
Siamese, not chihuahua
author Judy Schachner
Skippyjon plots
he bounces big boy bed
closet is planet Mars
perritos amigos
books checked out lots
Third time's the charm...more revisions. Here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/double-dactyl-i-wrote-one/
sadly I remember only the first verse of the following, which I read in college:
ReplyDeleteHiggledy piggledy
Physicist Heisenberg
Dotted his theories with
H-bars and q's [pronounced "cues"]
I'm a bit (two years) late to this thread, but I wrote one even longer ago than that:
ReplyDeleteTremolo, Shlemolo
Vladimir Horowitz
What a pianist he
Turned out to be!
Even when he was an
Octogenarian
Few on this earth could play
Better than he.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete