Higgledy-piggledy Emily Dickinson Liked to use dashes Instead of full stops.
Nowadays, faced with such Idiosyncrasy, Critics and editors Send for the cops.
~ Wendy Cope
The above is an example of a "double dactyl" poem--a craze for them started with the seminal volume, "Jiggery Pokery" published in 1968 or 1969 by Americans Anthony Hecht and John Hollander---two superb poets having fun. I thought I'd include this offering by Wendy Cope who is, I think, the finest mostly comic poet alive.
Note the form: The first two lines consist of double dactyls--three syllable feet in which the stress if on the first syllable. Line 2 references a person whose name is a double dactyl such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson or Thomas Strearns Eliot, or Anna Karenina. Sometimes you can use a group for line 2 such as: "Particle physicists" or "Yale University". And in the second stanza there is always a 6 syllable word.
Higgledy-piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Liked to use dashes
Instead of full stops.
Nowadays, faced with such
Idiosyncrasy,
Critics and editors
Send for the cops.
~ Wendy Cope
The above is an example of a "double dactyl" poem--a craze for them started with the seminal volume, "Jiggery Pokery" published in 1968 or 1969 by Americans Anthony Hecht and John Hollander---two superb poets having fun. I thought I'd include this offering by Wendy Cope who is, I think, the finest mostly comic poet alive.
Note the form: The first two lines consist of double dactyls--three syllable feet in which the stress if on the first syllable. Line 2 references a person whose name is a double dactyl such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson or Thomas Strearns Eliot, or Anna Karenina. Sometimes you can use a group for line 2 such as: "Particle physicists" or "Yale University". And in the second stanza there is always a 6 syllable word.