Remember my little poem about Orson Scott Card, which form I couldn't recall?
Hey Nonny, Hi Nonny,
Weird Science-Fantasy
Hasn't the wherewith to
Buy this cannard;
Try us again next year
If we're not bankrupt, for
Remuneration, Dear
Orson Scott Card.
Well, I found it! From: The Tenth Muse.
The double-dactyl is a short verse form invented by the American poets Anthony Hecht and John Hollander in 1966. The poem consists of one sentence containing forty-four syllables that are distributed over eight lines and fall into two four-line stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza are dactylic dimeter; the last one is a choriamb. The two stanzas end with a masculine rhyme on the last syllable of the choriamb. The final feature of the form is found in line six of the poem: a single, six-syllable word which is a double-dactyl. The example illustrates the rhythm, rhyme scheme, and other salient features of my favorite form.
Double-Dactyl
Higgledy-Piggledy
Dactyls in dimeter,
Verse form with choriambs
(Masculine rhyme):
One sentence (two stanzas)
Hexasyllabically
Challenges poets who
Don't have the time.
One more example, from The Tenth Muse:
Higgledy-Piggledy
Pitiful Tantalus
Stole food and drink from the
Table of Zeus;
So, he was punished with
Juxtapositional
Torture of sustenance
Just beyond use.
Give it a go!
.
About Me
- Joyce Ellen Davis
- 1. In dreams I am often young and thin with long blond hair. 2. In real life I am no longer young, or thin, or blonde. 3. My back hurts. 4. I hate to sleep alone. (Fortunately I don't have to!) 5. My great grandfather had 2 wives at once. 6. I wish I had more self-discipline. (I was once fired from a teaching position in a private school because they said I was "too unstructured and undisciplined." --Who, me??? Naaaahhh....) 7. I do not blame my parents for this. Once, at a parent-teacher conference, the teacher told me my little boy was "spacey." We ALL are, I told her. The whole fan damily is spacey. She thought I was kidding. I wasn't. 8. I used to travel with a theater reperatory company. My parents weren't happy about this. 9. My mother was afraid that I would run off and paint flowers on my cheeks and live in a commune, and grow vegetables. I once smoked pot. ONE TIME. 10. I don't drink or smoke. (Or swear, much. Well, I drink milk, and water, and orange juice, and stuff. Cocoa. I love Pepsi.) 11. Most of my friends are invisible. 12. I am a poet and a writer. All of my writing on these pages is copyrighted. Borrowing (without acknowledgment) is a sin.
BOOKS I HAVE WRITTEN (click on image to buy)
Chrysalis
In Willy's House
TRIPTYCH--Three Short Stories
A Book of Fours
Pepek the Assassin
My Grandkids
Awards
4 comments:
You're kidding right? I need a dictionary to read the rules. lol
HUGS
Forget about the rules. Just use your ears and listen for the pattern! Hear the music, the rhythm of it!
That last one cracked me up.......that's my idea of torture.
Is this the one who wrote Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card?
He sure has a limber imagination.
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