Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Other Requirement

This form is much like the clerihew with more structure. It is said to be developed by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal, and used extensively by John Hollander. The rules are:

1. The poem is two quatrains of dactylic dimeter.
2. The last two unstressed syllables of the fourth lines are not present.
3. The last lines of the two quatrains rhyme.
4. The first line is dactylic nonsense, such as "higgledy-piggledy" or "pocketa-pocketa" or "hickory-dickory."
5. The second line is a dactylic dimeter proper name.
6. At least one line will be a six-syllable double-dactyllic word. (Not an absolute requirement.)
7. The general contents are light verse.

Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal

British/American

4

8

Accentual-Syllabic Verse, Clerihew, Dactyl, Light Verse, Limerick

Incomplete