I am astonished and delighted to be the elected Poet-of-the-Week for the W3 Prompt #138!
Tada!
As the poet of the week, I invite and challenge you to write a Double Dactyl or a McWhirtle.
I can’t wait to read your poems!
Click details below to see the full prompt guidelines
DETAILS of the Double Dactyl and McWhirtle poetry forms
Form (choose one):
1. More challenging: Double dactyl (1951)
2. Less challenging: McWhirtle (1989)
Double dactyl? (more challenging)
- Stanzaic: 8 lines; two stanzas.
- Metric: Each line should contain two dactyls.
o A dactyl is a metrical foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, like this: “YOM-pa-pa.”
o Lines 4 and 8 are the exception to this, rounding off each stanza with a “YOM-pa-pa YOM.”
- Line 1 should consist of a pair of slightly nonsensical rhyming words.
o These can be relevant to the theme, or not. They might simply serve as a little oral warm-up (e.g., Flonkington plonkington).
- Line 2 should consist of a single name.
o Some names are simply MADE for double dactyls (e.g., Gillian Anderson, Christopher Eccleston), but many are not.
- Line 6 (sometimes line 7) should ideally contain a single, six-syllable word.However, many double dactyl writers gently ignore this rule. Why? Because it’s REALLY awkward.
· Examples of double dactyls
· I.
· Higgledy piggledy,
Benjamin Harrison,
Twenty-third president
Was, and, as such,
Served between Clevelands and
Save for this trivial
Idiosyncrasy,
Didn’t do much.
· II.
· Higgledy-piggledy
Emily Dickinson
Amherst had nothing more
Noble than she.
’Sconced in her house with the
Curtains pulled back just so:
Monochromatically
Serving up tea.
McWhirtle? (less challenging)
A McWhirtle is a light verse form similar to a double dactyl, which shares essentially the same form as the double dactyl, but without the strict requirements, making it easier to write. Specifically:
- Metric: Although the meter is the same as in a double-dactyl, syllables may move from the end of one line to the beginning of the next for readability.
- No requirement for a nonsense phrase (e.g., “Higgledy piggledy”) on the first line.
- No requirement for a single, six-syllable word in the second stanza.
- There is an extra unstressed syllable added to the beginning of the first line of each stanza.
Examples of McWhirtles
I.
I read in the papers
That Harry F. Ungar
Performs in a night spot
Near soigne Scotch Plains,
Caressing the keyboard
While affluent yuppies
Are eating and drinking
Their capital gains.
II.
We’re truly in awe of
Fernando the Fearless
who needed no net
for the flying trapeze
I hope you enjoy my first attempt at this fun poetry form. I think mine is a McWhirtle, because I carried over line five into the sixth…
Slippity Sloppity
Slippity sloppity,
Santa Claus Nicholas
slid on the slippery
snow on the roof
Dropping his sackful of
Toys, with a clattering—
Incomprehensibly
Fell off it, ‘Oof!’
Lesley Scoble, December 2024
Jingle Bells
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thank you, Michele Navajas, for bestowing the honour of placing the Poet of the Week crown upon my head. 🙇♀️
Thank you, David, The Skeptics Kaddish, for hosting your inspiring weekly prompts.
Thank you, dear reader, for reading. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎄 (If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you love, happiness and merriment in whatever you do. 🥳)
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; mime artist; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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