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#102449 05/03/03 01:12 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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metamorphosable... not an easy one to start this with but.

Higgamus hoggamus,
David D. Cronenburg
Had some te-Merity
Remade The Fly;
Goldblum was Shown to be
Metamorphosable,
We were told, "Be afraid,"
They didn't lie.


#102450 05/03/03 01:15 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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here's a self-referential example:

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.
Roger Robison

(that's as may be, but it doesn't support the added stipulation of having a person's name as the second line--which really makes things a lot harder!)

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W
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Those double dactyls are terrific, tsuwm.

Do you have any such examples for the contrary little pest, anapest?


#102452 05/03/03 03:01 PM
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old hand
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The Distracted Musician
(autobiographical, yes)

Holding my crash cymbals,
Counting the measures out,
Waiting to enter and
Doing my best;
Hear the bold trumpets play!
Woodwinds and saxophones!
Ah, here's my entrance -- OOPS!
Played in the rest.


#102453 05/03/03 03:09 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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before we get too far afield, here are those basic stips.

a double dactyl has a rigid (if peculiar) structure. Two stanzas, each comprising three lines of dactylic dimeter followed by a line with a dactyl and a single accent. The two stanzas have to rhyme on their last line. The first line of the first stanza is repetitive nonsense. The second line of the first stanza is somebody's name -- strictly speaking, a proper noun. Note that this name must itself be double-dactylic. E.g. Gloria Vanderbilt, Jesus of Nazareth, Gilbert and Sullivan, Archangel Gabriel. In the second stanza, one entire line must be a double-dactylic word. E.g. biopsychology, geopolitical, gastrointestinal, abecedarian, etc. etc.

BTW, anapest is a dactyl (hint, hint), making it a heterological word.


#102454 05/03/03 03:12 PM
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old hand
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The second line of the first stanza is somebody's name


Sorry, I missed that. I'll try to stick to the roolz.


#102455 05/03/03 03:20 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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...and don't forget the six-syllable word!!


#102456 05/03/03 03:25 PM
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if you sing it to the tune of "The Irish Washerwoman", you'll get pretty close...
except for the fourth line... hmmm...




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#102457 05/03/03 09:01 PM
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(from the Weekly Themes thread)

Here's a classic example:

Higgledy-piggledy
Ludwig van Beethoven
Bored by requests for some
Music to hum,

Finally answered with
Oversimplicity
"Here's my Fifth Symphony:
Duh, duh, duh, DUM!"

~~



and here's another source for the rules of this and other fixed-forms poems:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?T2E112764

tsuwm, your maiden dactyls were lovely.


#102458 05/03/03 09:46 PM
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Here's one that I think follows all the rules:

Doodilly, deedilly
Butler of Erewhon
Slogged through the high country
Staking a claim
Wrote on a hillside high
Autobiography
Led to a lifetime of
Living off fame.



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