Before settling on DDs I had a look at how many different forms of verse there are and for this I am more than happy to give credit to Robert Lee Brewer, from the Writer’s Digest in 2021. He found 168 poetic forms and gives examples of everyone. Sometimes making them up himself. An amazing job.
He starts at A for Abstract and comments:
Apparently, abstract was a term used by Dame Edith Sitwell to describe poems in her book Facade. There are different definitions provided below, but this form of poetry is more about how sounds, rhythms, and textures evoke emotions than about the actual meanings of words. His example is:
My rat-a-tat-tat hat
was smacked and whacked
by Thedulius Jack-a-bat-snat
while holding his gat.
He ends at Z with the Zejel which is a very old Spanish poetic form that is also likely an even older Arabic poetic form with an origination date somewhere between the ninth and eleventh centuries. In fact, Edward Hirsch believes the form was probably invented by Mucaddam ben Muafa, a ninth century Hispano-Muslim poet. The basic rules are the first stanza is a tercet (3 line stanza) with an AAA rhyme scheme. All other stanzas are 4 lines with an XXXA scheme. This is the first stanza of one Brewer created:
Give me a reason to run out
& empty myself of this doubt
That always follows me about
So, what about Double Dactyls. The double dactyl verse form is 8 lines and was invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal in 1951. It goes like this:
was smacked and whacked
by Thedulius Jack-a-bat-snat
while holding his gat.
He ends at Z with the Zejel which is a very old Spanish poetic form that is also likely an even older Arabic poetic form with an origination date somewhere between the ninth and eleventh centuries. In fact, Edward Hirsch believes the form was probably invented by Mucaddam ben Muafa, a ninth century Hispano-Muslim poet. The basic rules are the first stanza is a tercet (3 line stanza) with an AAA rhyme scheme. All other stanzas are 4 lines with an XXXA scheme. This is the first stanza of one Brewer created:
Give me a reason to run out
& empty myself of this doubt
That always follows me about
So, what about Double Dactyls. The double dactyl verse form is 8 lines and was invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal in 1951. It goes like this:
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blank
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blank
The first line has to be nonsense – hickory dickory and higgledy piggledy seem to be favourite;
The second line has to be someone’s name
One of the lines in the second stanza has to be a single word
The last lines of the stanzas rhyme.
Before moving on to my attempt I’ve put in an image from an Exhibition in London from 2008 by Nicholas Waplington (the clue’s in his name) entitled Double Dactyl.
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blank
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blankety
Blankety blank
The first line has to be nonsense – hickory dickory and higgledy piggledy seem to be favourite;
The second line has to be someone’s name
One of the lines in the second stanza has to be a single word
The last lines of the stanzas rhyme.
Before moving on to my attempt I’ve put in an image from an Exhibition in London from 2008 by Nicholas Waplington (the clue’s in his name) entitled Double Dactyl.
I had a go and was hoping to use one of my DGP colleagues’ names but that didn’t work. It was surprisingly difficult to find a Blankety Blankety type name. I was hoping to get away with Pamela de Winning or Kathrine Egg leston-Wirz.
However, I had to use the name below who, of course, plays for Birmingham City FC.
Higgledy-piggledy
Juninho Bacuna
Comes off the bench for Blues
And plays a role
That no one understands
Flabbergasted
When the radio blares
To JB........GOAL!!!!
Thanks for reading, Terry Q
2 comments:
Well done Terry. My first thought was pterodactyls as well. I believe that's a dinosaur double dactyl waiting to be written. Your Juninho Bacuna poem has inspired me to write one on a football theme... but you'll have to wait until Saturday for that. I hope you enjoyed this week's short diversion into comedic verse. I certainly enjoyed your blog.
You did well with this. I had never heard of the DD. You could have tried Katy Katy Eggy lol I tried Terry Terry Quinny? This is a challenging format - seemingly simple, but not - might have to have a go. Enjoyed the football poem. Maybe you and Steve could put together a collection. :)
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