| 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
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| In Need of a Steed
| Herstory/History
| Rock 'N' Roll
| The Cave: Reality Bytes
|
| Clippedy-Cloppedy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Thracian-born Spartacus | Claudian Livia | Stone-Pusher Sisyphus | Plato, philosopher, |
| -Captured a free man and | Numbered her husband Au- | Twice cheated Death, but he | Dreamed up a new concept |
| Sold as a slave- | Gustus's days; | Learned who was boss; | One febrile night: |
| Rome's insurrectionist | Armed with her aconite, | Sentenced to Hades for | Juxtaposed images, |
| Gladiatorial | Premeditatedly, | Pretereternity | Phantasmagoria, |
| Slaughtered his getaway, | Spiced up his life as she | Rolled a stone uphill, just | Objects that do not go |
| Error most grave. | "Fig"ured her ways... | Gathering dross! | Bump in the light. |
| Marc 'N' Cleo
| Vulpes et Corvus
| Horsing Around
| Hamilcar Barca's Son
|
| Wiggledy-Jiggledy | Cunningly-Charmingly | Clippedy-Cloppedy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Marcus Antonius, | Fox spies a crow with prize, | Wingéd horse Pegasus, | General Hannibal, |
| Smitten by beautiful | Plying his flattery: | Steed of Bellerophon, | "Favor of Baal" his |
| Queen of the Nile, | "I like your spunk!" | Legend does tell, | Name indicates, |
| Married her, died for her, | Crow, with the cheese in beak, | Hoofed up Mt. Helicon | Vowed to his father a |
| Megamaniacal | Cheddar-forgetfully | Hydrodiviningly, | Pro-Carthaginian |
| Victim of Actium/ | Opens her mouth to speak... | Giving the Muses their | Warfare with Rome for as |
| Feminine guile. | Chunk goes kerplunk! | Hippocrene well. | Long as it takes. |
| Dire Straits
| The Fates
| Kalendae Ianuariae
| Unworthy Son
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| Dashingly-Swirlingly | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Scylla Charybdisque | Clotho and Lachesis | Janus Patulcius, | Son of Aurelius, |
| "Rock and a hard place" of | -Atropos, too, is a | God of beginnings and | Commodus died on a |
| Homeric fame, | Part of the trip- | Also of gates, | Far new year's eve; |
| Physical features are | Destiny's goddesses | Figures in calendars, | Poisoned then strangled, he |
| Anthropomorphously | Interrelatedly, | Primopositional, | Antiheroically |
| Merged into monsterous | Practice their specialities: | Foremost in naming the | Got his comeuppance and |
| Women in name. | Spin, measure, snip! | Months in our dates. | Then took his leave. |
| Antinoüs
| Dramatis Personae
| Morituri Te Salutant
| Connubiality
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| Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Hadrian's favorite, | Thespis of Athens is | Flavian spectacle: | Cries of "Talassio!" |
| Born in Bythinia, | Given the credit for | Humans and animals | Mark the beginning of |
| Drowned in the Nile, | Drama's début: | Give it their best; | Marital bliss; |
| Gone like the city of | Solo and choral parts | Stirring the crowd with the | Auspices taken for |
| Antinoöpolis, | Seriocomically | Amphitheatrical | Confarreatio |
| Left just one legacy: | Spoken by actors through | "Ave, Imperator..."; | Favor the dowry that's |
| Statuesque smile. | Masks with a view. | You know the rest. | Sealed with a kiss. |
| Mistaken Identity
| Februa of the Luperci
| Hercules' 12th Labor
| Like Father, Like Son
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| Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Diggedy-Doggedy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Marcus Aurelius' | Feast of the Lupercal, | Three-headed Cerberus | Philip of Macedon |
| Statue in bronze on the | Rites of fertility | Stood as a guard at the | Formed up the phalanx and |
| Capitoline, | (Purity, too), | Entrance to Hell; | Harried the Greeks; |
| Famous equestrian | Spurred Gaius Julius' | Hercules, armed only | Murdered, he missed out on |
| Verdigrisiferous, | Luperlubricity: | Proprioceptively, | Mesopotamia, |
| Slipped by the Christians as | "Make sure, Calpurnia, | Managed to tame him, but | So, it's his son of whom |
| Great Constantine. | That one strikes you." | Freed him as well. | All the world speaks. |
| Physician, Heal Thyself!
| Little Boots
| Dyed in the Wool
| Just Desserts
|
| Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Galen of Pergamum | Gaius Caligula, | Tyrian purple, a | Pitiful Tantalus |
| Published a treatise on | Son of Germanicus | Highly-prized dyestuff in | Stole food and drink from the |
| Medicine's art, | Named for those boots, | Ancient world times, | Table of Zeus; |
| But it was based upon | During his reign, which was | Came from a mollusk, the | So, he was punished with |
| Gross-anatomical | Ultra-tyrannical, | Mediterranean | Juxtapositional |
| Findings in Barbary | Punished most everyone | Murex (M. trunculus), | Torture of sustenance |
| Ape parts in part. | Deemed in cahoots. | Made crimson lines. | Just beyond use. |
| Head Honcho
| The Mausoleum
| Moving Heaven & Earth
| Too, if by Sea
|
| Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Pontifex Maximus, | Tomb of Mausólus, a | Gardens of Babylon | Lighthouse on Pharos, a |
| "Builder of bridges" in | Wonderous sepulcher | Hung from tall terraces | Beacon of fame in the |
| Latin it means, | Built by his queen, | Built overhead; | Maritime climes, |
| Headed the state's role in | One of the fabled, the | Urged by his Persian wife, | Crowned Alexandria's |
| Religiosity, | Halicarnassian | NebuchadnezzarII | Mediterranean |
| Supervised priests and the | Stop was a must on the | Strove to create all the | Harbor and shoreline in |
| Vestals it seems. | Ancient world scene. | Mountains she'd pled. | Ancient world times. |
| Beside, not Bestride
| Still a Wonder
| The Artemision
| Olympian Zeus
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| Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy | Higgledy-Piggledy |
| Famous Colossus, the | Cheops' Great Pyramid, | Temple of Artemis, | Zeus at Olympia, |
| Rhodian statue one | Tomb of the pharaoh, in | Wonder of Wonders, in | Statue by Phidias, |
| Hundred feet high, | Giza still stands; | Ephesus stood; | Sight to behold, |
| Stood at the harbor and | Tourists who flock to see | Housed in the shrine was a | Image of ivory |
| Ever-so-splendidly | Archaeological | Multimammiferous | Ultramagnificient, |
| Glorified Helios | Marvels of mankind still | Symbol of fruitfulness | Sat on a throne made of |
| Bright in the sky. | Blink in the sands. | Carved out of wood. | Cedar and gold. |
Did you like those? Then here is an index to all of those written at The Tenth Muse.