Double Dactyls
 

This verse form was invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal, as documented by Hecht and John Hollander in their compilation, "Jiggery-Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls" (Athenaeum, New York, 1967).

Higgledy, piggledy,
Siren Calliope
Bids double dactyls to
Keep perfect time.
Then, not forgetting a
Hexasyllabical
Flourish, they always must
End with a rhyme. [Joshua W. Burton]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Anthony Hollander,
Two bards in one, worked their
Brains to a storm,
Seeking out words for the
Antepenultimate
Line of this dismally
Difficult form. [Anthony Hecht & John Hollander]

The idea is to put a name in the second line, while the sixth line is one single word (in some classic double dactyls this single-word requirement wanders around in the second stanza from the fifth through the eighth lines, as you'll see below, but the ordinary method is that it appear in the sixth), the meter of the whole is dactylic (HIG gle dee PIG gle dee), and the fourth and eighth lines rhyme.

Some more examples:

Higgledy, piggledy,
Mary of Magdala
Said to the dolorous
Mother of God:
`Parthenogenesis
Ought to be left to the
Simple amoeba or
Gasteropod.' [James Merrill]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Mme. de Maintenon
Shouted `Up yours!' when
Approached for the rent,
And, in her anger,
Proceded to demonstrate,
Iconographically,
Just what she meant. [Anthony Hecht]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Empress Victoria
Answered when asked to give
Gladstone the nod,
`Screw that old Aryan
Parliamentarian!
Disraeli and I stand for
Britain and God.' [E. William Seaman]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
High over Jutland, flew
In from the East;
`Well,' quipped a Minister
Plenipotentiary,
`Something is Groton in
Denmark, at least!' [John Hollander]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Juliet Capulet
Cherished the tenderest
Thoughts of a rose:
`What's in a name?' said she,
Etymologically,
`Save that the Montagues
Stink in God's nose.' [Anthony Hecht]

Higgledy, piggledy,
Robert C. Rauschenberg
Gunked up his canvas with
All kinds of glop.
`Though mixing media
Metalinguistically
Seems to me silly, I
Can't seem to stop.' [Eric Salzman]

Higgledy piggledy
Theotokopoulos
Painted so well he was
Blessed with this curse:
When he was good at his
Spirituality
None did it better but
When not none worse. [Marcus Bales]

Bonne chance!

Higgledy, piggledy,
Marcus Bales, Glassmaker
As a zepoet is
Rivalled by none.
Dishing out rhymes, he's a
Humanitarian
Hoping to help us
Recover some fun.

Higgledy, piggledy,
Donald "The Donald" Trump
Hideous creature with
Money to burn.
Marrying teens as an
Octogenarian
Makes for a hobby when
Girls never learn.

Higgledy, piggledy
Ze's Trisherina
Is sensible, decent,
And sexy as well;
Who could have let such a
Characteristically
Metacanadian
Out of her shell?

Higgledy piggledy
Gabriel Fahrenheit
Curse your ideas about
Counting degrees!
Back in the shade of our
Antethermometer
Days we had temperatures
Cooler than these!

Higgledy, piggledy,
Doctor Hippocrates
Medical history
Features your name;
Cautioning all against
Iatrogenesis,
Malpractice law
Will be never the same.

brava!

if you've seen the film version
 

Higgledy, piggledy,
Mr. Mistoffelees
Pranced in a ruff to the Weber score Cats.
"Presto!" he gushed, and the
Homoeroticists
Gushed in return
"Get an eyeful of that!"

Higgledy Piggledy
Susan B. Anthony
Got us the vote with her
Tireless hard work.

Now that the polls are all
Heterosexual
All share the blame for e-
Lecting some jerk.

Dear Marcus,

Please may we have a communal dactyl thread too?

Yours,

Snake

Higgledy Piggledy
Marcus B Bales
Gave us a thread in which
we can shine
Now I think it's wonderfully
idiosyncratic - ly
but please grant me royally
this thread of mine?

Higgledy, piggledy,
The sea anemone's
Hard up for enemies
Under the sea.
Lacking a nemesis,
Parthenogenesis
Also ain't all it is
Cracked up to be.

:D

*giggles at Trish amusing herself*

Take a bow Missus Trish!

sorry about this one
 

Higgledy, piggledy,
Pamela Anderson
Bobbles and jiggles
Around in the breeze.
Maybe because she has
Elephantiasis
Above the waist;
What a gruesome disease!

Wouketa Wouketa
Herbie the Bookbinder
There with the castor oil
Bed-bound again,
Had a chilly awareness he'd
Underdistinguished
Himself on that night as a
Man among men.