Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The terror of dactyls

Higgeldy piggeldy
Vyacheslav Molotov
Dined with Von Ribbentrop (German and fink).
They worked out a new pact
Naziappeasingly
Then moved on to cocktails: “It’s time for a drink.”
By James

Today, Jiminy Cricket introduced me to a new and extremely addictive form of poetry. Combining elements of the haiku and the limerick, Double Dactyls — or Higgledy Piggledys as they are more commonly known — are short poems that adhere to a strict set of rules (see below) and often contain a humourous or unexpected ending. During the course of today, subbin' articles on mergers most foul in the European utility sector became increasingly unattractive, while attempts to create my own HP became something of an obsession.
So here you go...

Higgledy piggledy
Feminist Woolstonecraft
Defender of women, their rights and their wrongs
Engendered a monster
Grandmatriacally
And surely thought Shelly a heartless Don John.

The rules are:
An HP always has the same first line
The second line is always a six-syllable name
The fifth line is always a made-up adverb, also of six syllables
The rhyme scheme is abcdec

"An obsession is sudden and o'erwhelming and can be acted upon, rather than a crush, which smoulders away in the back of one's mind."

1 Comments:

Blogger quietlybreathing said...

Higgledy piggledy
Ailis's friend Penny
Taught us about dactyls, double they were
So I laboured diligently
Haikuicallicly
But I'm not sure I met the challenge with flair

It doesn't rhyme properly but it's reflexive so p'raps I could pass it off as postmodern?

from book club Louise

7:47 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home