In the second stanza, you repeat the rhythmic pattern of the first: three double dactyls and a final one truncated, and you rhyme the fourth line of the second stanza with the fourth of the first. There also must be at least one line in the second stanza that consists of a single word containing two dactyls. This is all much easier to hear than to describe.
This form was invented by Paul Pascal and Anthony Hecht, and defined by Hecht and John Hollander in Jiggery Pokery.
For some classicist double dactyls
click here.
Higgeldy piggeldly
Mary of Magdela Said to the dolorous Mother of God: "Parthenogenesis
Higgamus Hoggamus
"Microbiology
Finn Again Ibbety bibbety
lapsed, till rejoyceaments
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Higgledy piggeldy
Archangel Rafael, Speaking of Satan's re- Bellion from God: "Chap was decidedly
"Patty cake, patty cake,
"Gubernatorial
Higgeldy, piggeldy,
Then, quite ignoring the
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Flimmery, flummery, Benjamin Franklin pre- Vailed with the ladies no Matter what age. "Experimentally,
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Willoughby, Wallabee,
William the Conqueror, Why aren't you sailing for England today? "Gastrointestinal
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Oxygen, hydrogen,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Asked about Eleanor's
Doctor's report.
"What did he think of your
Big fat ass?" "Franklin, we
Didn't discuss you!" was
Her quick retort.*
*in order to retain historical accuracy the requirement
of a polysyllabic word has been sacrificed.
--H. T. K-S
Hickory, dickory,
Emily Dickinson
Went for a ride with a
Sinister guy--
So we would call him--but--
Emily--found him un-
Characteristically--
Kindly--and--shy.
--H. T. K-S
Jiggery-Pokery
Marcus Antonius
Don't be so quick to say
"Lend me your ears."
Vincent Van Gogh might be
Hyperattentively
Ready to do so with
Razor or shears.
--H. T. K-S
An exchange of double-dactyl parries and thrusts, when one of the
parties had exposed the other party's ignorance of one requirement
of the double dactyl:
Hippity, hoppity,
Leonard M. Trawick, III, Checking out Kirby-Smith's Dactyls, found fault, Said they had failed because
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To which Trawick responded magnanimously:
Lickety splitteky
like a magician he
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MAD SCENE
Higgledy-Piggledy,
Lucy of Lammermoor,
Forced to the altar with
Arthur, whereat,
Took up a dagger and
Melodramatically
Ended the match on a
Piercing E-flat.
INSPIRATION
Higgledy-Piggledy
Mathilde Wesendonck,
Muse for a lengthy Wag-
Nerian score.
Privately said, :"Though I'm
Touched by his amorous
Impetuosity,
*Tristan's* a bore.
Mathilde Wesendonck
RIGOLETTO
Jiggery-Pokery,
Duca di Mantova,
Verdian tenor with
Sexual knack,
Outwits his jester, whose
Innocent daughter goes
Selfsacrificially
Into the sack.
Lisa McCabe registers her impatience with poetry slams in a bidactylic outburst:
Advice to a Slam Poet
Damnedy Slammedy
Walterus Whitmany
Where is your prosody,
Meter and rhyme?
Better to write in these
Dactylus-dimetries --
Jungian Therapy’s
Equally fine.
And on and on:
The invitation to the first-birthday party for my best friend's children
(Dashiell and Spencer - in vitro identical twins) requested poems in
lieu
of gifts. I didn't want to fall back on limericks, yet knew I wasn't
up to
a Miltonic sonnet. A search for poetic forms led me to your online
outline
of stanza forms where I lit upon the double dactyl. What fun!
Thanks for providing such a handy reference.
Best regards,
Deb Stavin
Boston, Massachusetts
P.S. Here are my first attempts.
Bippity boppity
Johann Sebastian had
Twenty-one children the
Old-fashioned way.
If he had known of the
Neo-obstetrical,
One petri dish would have
Carried the day.
Higgledy piggledy
Barry and Melanie
Never imagined on
Their wedding day,
Farther along they'd be
genealogically
linked to two kids with the
Same DNA.