INTRACTABLE DACTABLE

My kitty-skritching friend Rahel has rekindled my interest in a tricky verse form, the Double Dactyl. I had written a few of these in the past, but after reading one, Rahel took me to task for not following the rules of the form more strictly. She’s right; I had been more focused on the meter - and it’s a lot harder to write a good DD that follows all of the strictures.

The classic double dactyl is two stanzas, four lines each. The first three lines contain two dactyls each, and the fourth, one dactyl and one extra syllable. (A dactyl is three syllables with the stress on the first syllable.) Thus:

Hard soft soft hard soft soft
Hard soft soft hard soft soft
Hard soft soft hard soft soft
Hard soft soft hard

So much for the meter. Now the fun starts.

The first line of Stanza One must be two rhyming nonsense words: higgledy piggledy, jiggery pokery, bliggity bloggity - you get the idea. The second line should be a proper noun. Names like “Jesus of Nazareth” and “Colin Montgomerie” work well - remember, hard-soft-soft-hard-soft-soft.

The last line of Stanza Two must rhyme with the last line of Stanza One. OK so far?

Now, for the tricky rule. One of the lines in Stanza Two must be a single double dactyl word. For example: schistosomiasis, microbiology.

Real sticklers will tell you that once a double dactyl word has ever been used in a double dactyl poem, it can never be used again. To this, I say Bull-Shit.

Anyway, I wrote this one for Rahel:

Yiddeldy fiddeldy,
Raheleh Jaskow, she
Skritches those kittycats
Each chance she get.

Cats in Jerusalem
Are not enough for her.
Ailurophiliac’s
Surfing the ’Net!

And since, as with eating peanuts or potato chips, it’s hard to write just one DD, here are a couple more. Maybe this will make up for my late start in NaPoWriMo.

Bliggity bloggity
Intrepid Elisson,
Pounding the keyboard, cre-
ating a post.

Elisson - was he the
Valedictorian
Of “Stupid Writer’s School”?
“Yowza!” say most.

Zibbity zobbity
Town of Metropolis
Newspaper editor:
“Great Caesar’s Ghost!”

Lois Lane suffers from
Encephalopathy.
“Help! Save me, Superman!
I’ve burnt my toast!”

Of course, it’s coincidence that all four of the last lines above rhyme. I am not trying to write a double double dactyl. Not now, anyway.

Update:

Not to be outdone, Rahel has offered up this (undeservedly complimentary) double dactyl of her own:

Kittery cattery,
Steve of Blog d’Elisson
Writes double dactyls with
Sparkle and will.

Humor aforethought, he
Self-deprecatingly
Blows us away with his
Consummate skill.

Thanks, Rahel! You may not be able to skritch my cats (being that you’re on the other side of the planet), but you certainly have skritched my Big Fat Writer’s Ego.