To make a double dactyl, you start with a nonsense line made of two naturally dactylic words, such as those below. In the second line you arrange the name of a famous real or fictional person so as to make two more dactyls: / * * | / * *. In the third line you add two more dactyls, and in the fourth  you create a (catalectic )   dactylic dimeter by leaving off the last syllable.

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
I for one left to the
Simple amoeba or
Gasteropod."
        --James Merrill

      Higgamus Hoggamus
      "Anton Von Leewenhoek
      Has a small problem," con-
      Fided his wife.

      "Microbiology
      Doesn't disturb me; his
      Microanatomy's
      Blighting my life!"
            --Theodore L. Drachman

Finn Again

Ibbety bibbety
Anna L. Plurabelle
rivering seaward par
swerve and per bend,

lapsed, till rejoyceaments
philolinguistical
mythed her and founded her,
words without end.
            --Irma Brandeis 

Higgledy piggeldy
Archangel Rafael,
Speaking of Satan's re-
Bellion from God:

"Chap was decidedly
Tergiversational,
Given to lewdness and
Rodomontade."
        --Anthony Hecht
 

"Patty cake, patty cake,
Marcus Antonius,
What do you think of the
African queen?"

"Gubernatorial
Duties require my
Presence in Egypt. Ya
Know what I mean?"
        --Paul Pascal
 

Higgeldy, piggeldy,
Anna Karenina
Went off her feed and just
Couldn't relax.

Then, quite ignoring the
Unsuitability,
Threw in the sponge and was
Scraped off the tracks.
            --John Hollander

All the above found at the (sometimes mysteriously disconnected) web site:
http://www.stinky.com/dactyl/dactyl.html#poems



 
 

Flimmery, flummery,
Benjamin Franklin pre-
Vailed with the ladies no
                 Matter what age.

 "Experimentally,
 Trial and error, that's
 How I accomplished it!"
 Chuckled the sage.
                --H. T. K.-S.

Willoughby, Wallabee,
William the Conqueror,
Why aren't you sailing for
England today?

"Gastrointestinal
Disequilibrium
Anticlimactically
Got in the way."
                     --H. T. K-S

                                                    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
Polysyllabically
All were deficient and
Maimed, blind and halt.

To which Trawick responded magnanimously:

Lickety splitteky
Henry T. Kirby-Smith
Jr.'s dactylics are
witty and terse--

like a magician he
prestidigitally
tosses them off at the
speed of light verse.



Three operatic double dactyls by Russ McDonald:
 

  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.
 
 
 



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