So are you gonna recite this at the wedding?

Well, great idea! I could use it as my toast to the both of you! The problem is, as I have found in my non-wordcrafter life, nearly no one has ever heard of a double dactyl!

Even if they've not heard of double dactyls, the poetry is still enjoyable for it's own wittiness.

I suppose. However, in order for me to really appreciate them, I had to write them. My first response was, "Why, these verses don't even rhyme!"

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh: ... as I have found in my non-wordcrafter life, nearly no one has ever heard of a double dactyl!

Higgeldy piggledy
Kalleh, word-maveness,
Mentions in passing her
'Non-wordcraft life'.

Note that her phrase here is
Oxymoronical.
Surely you're being i-
Ronic, dear wife?

Delightful, Shu! How could anyone have a non-wordcraft life???? And why would one want to?

Oh, Shu, I suppose you're right. Even at the Art Institute today I jotted down a French word to ask about, which I will post later.

We went to the Winnetka Antique Show with CW on Sunday, and they had an antique bookseller there. I bought a beautiful copy of one of my favorite books, "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius." My logophile friend had introduced me to him awhile ago, and I just love that book. For example, here is one: "The art of living resembles wrestling more than dancing, for here a man does not know his movement and his measures beforehand. No, he is obliged to stand strong against chance, and secure himself as occasion shall offer."

Shu reminded me that Marcus Aurelius is a DD name, so how could I not write one about my favorite philosopher?!

Higgledy Piggledy
Marcus Aurelius:
As a philosopher,
He is my fav!

In "Meditations" he,
Authoritatively,
Teaches us wisely on
How to behave!

What does fav mean? And it doesn't rhyme with behave ...

hehehe - you are such a troublemaker, jheem!

Kalleh, it's wonderful!

Ahem! Remember, I am the lone wolf here who likes "fav," rather than "fave," though many on Google agree with me!

though many on Google agree with me!

So, let me understand this. You now agree with my laissez-faire views on spelling, punctuation, semantics, lexicography, and grammar?

quote:

You now agree with my laissez-faire views on spelling, punctuation, semantics, lexicography, and grammar?

I have always been interested in your position on this, and to be honest, I believe I am in the baffled stage of learning about it. I must move on to true understanding! I see, for example, that you agree with commas (even serial commas!), periods, question marks, italicizing foreign words, and question marks. Methinks thou doth protest too much!

Methinks thou doth protest too much!

Ooh, darn, you've found me out.

Diary Wiary,
I, etoile_violet,
Gladly agreed to re-
-Quest from a chum.

“Reciprocality:
Start up a LiveJournal,
Then in return back to
Wordcraft I’ll come!”

Cat, you're the second person this week to refer me to livejournal.com. How does one pick a blog site?

Then in return back to
Wordcraft I'll come!


Well, that's a relief!

I didn't so much pick it as was cajoled into it, CW .

But it's very interesting. Thanks for sharing the idea, Cat!

hokery smokery
Mexican mountainside
Smoking the atmosphere
Clouding the skies

Nicknamed The Pope,
Popocatepetl,
Marking the day when the
Other Pope dies.

Jerry - a very interesting connection. Thanks for the links!

Rickety rackety
President Yushchenko
Withdraws his troops
From war-torn Iraq --

Countering George Bush's
Megalomania --
Ukrainians hoping he
Won't send them back.

Papally Hapally
Cardinal Ratzinger,
Strict in beliefs, and he
Gives Cath'lics hope.

Now he will move from his
Country and learn about
Vaticanology:
He's the new Pope!

quote:

Cardinal Ratzinger,

Hmmmm..... Didn't he play Cliff on "Cheers?"

What's this? I leave Wordcraft for a mere *cough* seven months and DDs fall out of fashion! It's time for a drive-by dactyling.

Not quite a saint:

Drangilly-danglilly
Guðmundur Arason,
Bishop of Hólar and
Abseiling ace,

Cut short his job as a
Cliff-consecrationist,
Graciously granting the
Wicked their place.

I found the Icelandic folk tale of the consecration of Drangey's cliffs amusing. Superstition had built up around the deaths of experienced bird-catchers who worked the sheer cliffs. Guðmundur Arason "the Good" (1161-1237) set out with his holy water and a crack crew of clerics to fight the fearsome forces of evil, working from the foreshore, from a boat, or suspended from the tops of the cliffs where necessary. During one bold belayed blessing, a grey hairy hand emerged from the rock and started to slice his rope with a sabre. A voice told him to bless no more, since the wicked needed a place of their own, too.


Familial foibles of fire ants:

Ploidity-droidity
Diploid queen fire ants
Clone themselves daughters to
Be the next queens,

Giving them life via
Parthenogenesis—
No need for males to get
Into their genes.


Clonally-dronally
Haploid male fire ants
Stoically cope with a
Karma to spurn,

Living their history of
Amatrilineal
Roots—a glass ceiling but
One that won't burn.

See Wasmannia auropunctata for more details.



Nigerian scam email:

Scammily-spammily
Miriam Abacha,
Widow of former
Nigerian chief,

Seeks your assistance to
Pseudofiducially
Hold thirty mil for her
Family's relief.

Inspired by Making Light.



Full of Sith:

Magically-tragically
Anakin Skywalker
Begs a fair trial for
Chancellor Pulp,

Then slaughters character
Verisimilitude,
Keeping Darth trite for the
Public to gulp.



Tentacle time:

Squiddily-diddily
Gigas (Dosidicus),
Migrating north from its
Home in the deep,

Causes reporters to
H.P.Lovecraftily
Paint purple prose while the
Old guy's asleep.

Inspired by Florid squid prose.

Wow -those are awesome! And inspiring! I'll be thinking all day to see if I can come up with one.

Oh, Virge, those are great! I haven't been on wordcraft as much recently as I would have liked, and I was just thrilled to see someone bringing up this thread again. Time for me to start dactyling again, too!

I especially like "pseudofiducially!"

I haven't felt the creative juices in a while now...for limericks and DDs. My limericks on OEDILF, in fact, have really petered out. However, perhaps because of the new WPSI (see the post in Community) contest, suddenly, I'm back!

I wrote these for 2 of our posters this morning. How about some DDs (or limericks) about our members? That's always fun!

Zimbally Kimbally
Wordcrafter's Zmj
New to the forum, he
Broadens my mind!

Sesquipedalian,
Cautions grammarians
Not to be rulemakers...
He's quite a find!

Great to have you here, Zmj!

Shawnily, Fawnily
Scientist Seanahan
Came back--We've missed you so
While you were gone!

Says that he knows more of
Radiolucency *
Than of linguistics, though
Balderdash, Sean!

* Substitute any 6 syllable, double dactyl, scientific word there. There are many!

While you call yourself a "scientist," we see you as one of our resident experts in language...and we love it!

Welcome back, Sean! We've missed you!

Hey...I hope Sean and Zmj saw these!

Since Braket wrote us a nice DD in another thread (he claims it was his first, but I don't believe him for a minute! ), here is one for him (or her, I am not sure):

Tholily Tholily
Braket (Australian),
Newbie on Wordcraft, we
Welcome you thus!

Writes a great dactyl, and
Posts are superb...hope you'll
Enthusiastically
Thole all of us!

My daugther is about to start her first job, and I bought her some clothing and wrote her this DD:

Higgledy Piggledy
Lawyerly Catherine
Settles each client's big
Legal dispute.

Sending you wishes con-
Gratulatorily!
Wear on your first day and
You'll be so cute!

Line 6 is cheating, I suppose, but I had fun with it anyway!

Hey Kalleh, I managed to miss these. Thanks. : )

Sinderzie Cinderzie
Kalleh Aschenputtel
Dishes out compliments
Coupled with wits

Caution dear prince it's an
Incontrovertible
Impossibility
That your Shufitz

Can I call my last line punctuational ambiguity? Probably not. I should defer in any case to introduce myself to Shufitz. This ambiguity gets me in trouble...

Thanks, Braket! However, I refuse to believe that you're a newbie with these DDs. You are just too darned good!

[I take it Aschenputtel is German and has something to do with "Cinderella"? At least I get that impression from the German I see when I put the word into Google.]

higgledy piggledy
Poet John Hollander
Working together with
.....Anthony Hecht

Finally discovered these
Rhythms, etcetera
Dactylemphatically
What you'd expect.

Hacktalis fractalis
No double-dactyl this
fragment needs polishing:
Who has the time?

braket, new member from
Queensland, Australia
We've got the rhythm if
you've got the rhyme!


(Offered with diffidence because of multiple rules violations: name on line 5 instead of line 2; no DD on line 6 (or anywhere else for that matter, unless you want to make Queenslandaustralia into one word); ambiguous "this" used simultaneously to end line two and begin line three, to name a few)

PS. per this German-English dictionary Aschenputtel means _exactly_ "Cinderella."

Oh, Hab, I love it anyway...and yours, too, Jerry.

What is the pronunciation of "Aschenputtel?"

quote:

What is the pronunciation of "Aschenputtel?"

As in most European languages, the vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. Or Yiddish.

Next question?

Kalleh. I just saw your DD. I'd forgotten that you mentioned it before on one of the Saturday chats. Thanks for the rhymifying and the welcome.

quote:

quote:

What is the pronunciation of "Aschenputtel?"

As in most European languages, the vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. Or Yiddish.

Concretely, it's like OSH"-n-PUT'l, with put-as-in-foot. Primary stress on OSH, secondary on put. I think Aschen- are ashes, and -puttel might have something to do with -person-who-puts-them-somewhere, hence Cinder-ella.

Higgelty Piggelty
Quiltin' Fool; new member
Sorta, well maybe, but
Some can guess who!

Fond of the poetry
Abecedarian,
She loves to quilt
And she likes cookin' too!

We welcome you, and what a nice DD! I'd love to see some more DDs!

Higgety Hoggety
Quiltin' Fool's really
Jo, Miss Shoshana, from
Iowa's climes.

Armed with her bent toward the
sesquipedalian,
More double dactyls
And other bad rhymes.

Oh...welcome, Jo! I love your DDs. I have to get in the DD mood, and I haven't been in one lately.

Interesting word, "climes." The OED calls it "obscure," which is a relief to me because I haven't heard it being used before.

You've SEEN Jo's DDs?

quote:

Interesting word, "climes."

But, as Jo demonstrates, a useful word to rhyme with 'rhymes'!

Does anyone have a favorite, fun double dactyl? It could either be one we've posted...or one you've seen elsewhere. I have been doing "poetry words" on wordcraftjr, and I want to end with the double dactyl and a good example of one.

When I posted about "limerick" (I had to include that word! ), I posted one of my favorite limericks. I used to think it was an Ogden Nash limerick, but I think it is anonymous:

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through the flaw in the flue.

When a certain English professor introduced us -- his students -- to the Double Dactyl, this is the classic model he used.

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

Finally answered with
Oversimplicity,
"Here's my Fifth Symphony:
Dum-de-de-dum."

(Authorship uncertain)

Higgeldy Piggeldy
Rudolph the red-nosed deer
Flew through the night
On his toy bearing trip.

What were his thoughts? Were they
Eschatological?
Or merely of oats and some
Hot mash to nip?

Thank you, both! Quiltin' Fool, I will change L3 to "Flew through the night on his".

"Eschatological" will definitely challenge them!

you are quite correct about the scansion. Sigh...

Higgeldy Piggeldy
Jolly St. Nicholas
Speeds through the night on his
Sleigh, not a truck.

Built very wide, he has
Steatopygia.
How does he flue dive with-
Out getting stuck?

Oh...that is just great! I will post that for the jr. Wordcrafters as well.

Now, since I am doing Hanukkah words over there this week, I will have to come up with a Hanukkah DD. Thanks for the inspiration. I haven't written a DD in awhile so I am pumped!

Now, when you are pumped, it doesn't take so long. However, I sense a bit of rustiness!

Higgledy Piggledy
Hanukkah celebrates
Victory over that
Mean old Greek King!

Spin the fun dreidle or,
Illuminatedly,
Light the menorah, and
Latkes we'll bring!