Higgeldy Piggeldy verse collection 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 below illustrates the rhythm, rhyme scheme, and other salient features of my favorite form. -- http://lonestar.texas.net/~robison/dactyls.html (See also -- http://www.stinky.com/dactyl/dactyl.html) ----------------------------------------------------------- Double-Dactyl Long-short-short, long-short-short Dactyls in dimeter, Verse form with choriambs (Masculine rhyme): One sentence (two stanzas) Hexasyllabically Challenges poets who Don't have the time. ---------------------------------- cosmic background radiation Higgledy-piggledy particle physicists measuring cosmic re- sidual heat. Omnidirectional homogeneity makes supersymmetry look awfully neat. -RP (1989) ------------------------------------------------ cosmic background radiation, Smoot's contribution Higgeldy Piggeldy Berkeley cosmologist, also a unit of measurement, Smoot, found microscopical anisotropical noises which caused him his own horn to toot. -RP (1994) -------------------------------------------- boring colloquia Higgeldy piggeldy boring colloquia: incomprehensible gobbledy-gook. Second to nothing in soporificity, except for, possibly, reading the book. -RP (1994) -------------------------------------------------- Stephen J. Gould Higgeldy Piggeldy heterodoxical paleontologist Stephen J. Gould, iconoclastically trumpeted evidence countering Darwin, but no one was fooled. -RP (1994) ----------------------------------------------- Anna Karenina Higgelvich Piggelvich Anna Karenina Russian romanticist cracked under strain: impetuosity caused her to tragically, melodramatically catch the next train. (games mag.) ------------------------------------------------- Alexander The Great Higgeldy Piggeldy Philip of Macedon cursed Alexander, his famous papoose, "Why should I try to be philoprogenitive? everyone thinks that his father was Zeus!" -- Keith H. Peterson ------------------------------------------------- Rachmaninov Higeldy Piggeldy Sergei Rachmaninov wrote his concertos for handspans like wings. Few realistically can pianistically digitalistically play the damned things. (games mag.) ------------------------------------------------- Ollie! Higgelgate, Piggelgate, Oliver, Oliver cleaned out his files to clean up his act letting him substitute somewhat revisionist verisimilitude after the fact. -RP (1987) ----------------------------------------------- William The Conqueror Normandy-Normandy William the Conqueror channeled his strength against Celtics and Picts. Domesday Book sponsor and founder of juries, he's mainly remembered for 1066. (games mag.) -------------------------------------------------- Superman Higgeldy Piggeldy Superman Superman born to his station, im- mortal, alone, thus EX OFFICIO was AB INITIO DEUS EX MACHINA SINE QUA NON. -RP (1987) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thor Heyerdahl Higgledy-piggledy Heyerdahl Heyerdahl gained notoriety sailing his raft. Some now believe that this septagenarian's anthropological theories are daft. -RP (1987) ------------------------------------------------------ J.L.S. - the movie? Higgledy-piggledy Jonathan Livingston turned into film star by Richard Bach's greed. Monomaniacal aerodynamicists cinemographically seldom succeed. -RP (1987) ---------------------------------------------------- Classics I: Oedipus Higgledy-piggledy Oedipus Tyrannos murdered his father, used mama for sex. This mad debauch, not so incomprehensibly, left poor Jocasta and Oedipus Wrecks. -Joan Munkacsi ------------------------------------------------------- Classics II: Anthony and Cleopatra Patty-cake, patty-cake, marcus Antonius what do you think of the African Queen? Gubernatorial duties require my presence in Egypt. Ya know what I mean? -Paul Pascal ------------------------------------------------ Classics III: After the Trojan War Higgledy-piggledy King Agamemnon, re- turning from Troy didn't like what he saw. Queen Clytemnestra per- formed euthanasia and blamed the whole thing on her sister-in-law. -RP (1987) -------------------------------------------------- Self Reference Starting with nonsense words: ("Higgeldy-piggeldy"), then comes a name (making line number two); Somewhere along in the terminal quatrain, a didaktyliaios word and we're through. -John Hollander ----------------------------------------------- John Hollander Higgeldy-piggeldy schoolteacher Hollanders mutter and grumble and cavili and curse searching for words for the antepenultimate line of this light-weight but intricate verse. -John Hollander -------------------------------------------------- Benjamin Harrison Higgledy-piggledy, Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President, was, and, as such, Served between Clevelands, and save for this trivial idiosyncrasy, didn't do much. -John Hollander ------------------------------------------------- Bonaparte Higatique-pigatique Josephine Bonaparte said, "My short husband's too big for his pants, Egomaniacally, characteristically, counterproductively cozening France." -Mike Shenk ---------------------------------------------------- Baryshnikov Higglesky-pigglesky Mister Baryshnikov spoke of his life in the U.S.S.R. "There I was dancer," he said with some modesty. "U.S. is wonderful-- here I am star." -Burt Hochberg ------------------------------------------------------ the integration of Yale Higgledy-piggledy Yale University gave up misogyny, opened its door. Extracurricular heterosexual coeducational fun is in store. ?? ---------------------------------------------------- Nabokov Higgeldy-Piggeldy Vladimir Nabokov twentieth-century master of wit Altered forever the face of American heterosexual pedophile lit. . -RP (1994) ---------------------------------------------------- F.D.R. Higgeldy-Piggeldy Franklin D. Roosevelt, fiscal magician, unrivaled, as yet, Unmathematically multiplied nothing by something and - presto - we got out of debt. - Frances Kandl (1994) ---------------------------------------------------- Friends of Bill Higgeldy Piggeldy beltway insiderdom names drop confetti-like over DC Machiavellian self-immolation means all are defined by who's FOH/B - Diana Mutz (1994) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Freud Higgeldy-Piggeldy Sigmund of Freiburg, our urpsychotherapist taught us that sex Rightly regarded meant monomaniacally seeing a phallus in all things convex. - Frances Kandl (1994) -------------------------------------------------------------- musicotherapy Higgeldy-Piggeldy "Musicotherapy" new-age psychiatry for the effete; Best known for being a hexasyllabical word in which none of the letters repeat. -RP (1994) -------------------------------------------------------------- new-age medicine Higgeldy Piggeldy neo-aquarian witch-doctors know what a client expects: non-pharmaceutical homeopathical remdies based on pla- cebo effects. -RP (1994) -------------------------------------------------- blue-tongued skink Higgeldy Piggeldy T. Intermedia genuine blue-tongued Tas- manian skink: Vomero-nasally he can identify olefactorily more than you think. -RP (1995) ---------------------------------------------- the origins of technology Higgledy-piggledy modern technology started with antedi- luvian zeal when some uncivilized Mesopotamian unostentatiously built the first wheel. -RP (1987) ----------------------------------------------- southpaw molecules Higgeldy Piggeldy stereochemistry left-handed isomers built to request; Anti-nutritional oleomargarine: good for a lubricant, just don't ingest. -RP (1995) ------------------------------------------------ minimal surfaces Higgeldy Piggeldy minimal surfaces: Gaussian curvature bearing no slope. Instances spanning an isoperimeter can be constructed with water and soap. -RP (1993) ---------------------------------------------- Sir Arthur Higgeldy-Piggeldy Gilbert & Sullivan, musical satirists, hardly sublime, Unhesitatingly would have approved of their names being used in this ludicrous rhyme. -RP (1994) ---------------------------------------------- the mystery planet Uranus, Uranus, Herschel's discovery axis inverted, past Saturn it swings. Who would have thought that the antepenultimate solar constituent also had rings? -RP (1987) ----------------------------------------------- Vonnegut's Bergeron Higgeldy piggeldy Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut's superman and his new bride undemocratically jettisoned handicaps, put on the show of their lives, and then died. -RP (1987) -------------------------------------------------- Heaven's Gate Higgeldy Piggeldy Heaven's Gate, Heaven's Gate: antemillenial cult suicide. Prognosticators of coming apocalypse? No, just some freeloaders hitching a ride. -RP (1997) ---------------------------------------------------- Affirmative Action Higgeldy, Piggeldy action affirmative, delicate rulings by EEOC: OK to advertise gender-specifically, long as the targeted gender is "she". --------------------------------------------- Jesenko (Post Doc at UW) Higglevic(h), Pigglevic(h)! J. Vu-ka-DIN-o-vic Said "There is something I Wish to announce: Accentuate, please, the Antepenultimate Syllable of my last Name to pronounce." "YES-en-ko! YES-en-ko!" Said Vu-ka-DIN-o-vic, "This is the right way my First name to say." "Characteristicly, Slavic stylisticly, Tenth Latin letter is Not said like J." -- MH and JWR (2004) ------------------------------------------------ Higgledy-piggledy, Poet John Hollander Invented a verse form that Required rhyme. Forming a canon of Double-dactylically Versified stanzas Took some of his time. -- Jay Pasachoff (2013)