| Double Dactyl Contest! A Double-Dactyl is an eight-line verse form of two stanzas. In each stanza, the first three lines are double dactyls and the fourth is a choriamb. The fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. In the first stanza, the first line comprises two nonsense words, which frequently rhyme (the standard is Higgledy-Piggledy, hence the alternative name for the form), and the second usually contains a name. In the second stanza, one of the lines is taken up by a single hexasyllabic double-dactylic word. A selection of science-fiction themed double-dactyls have been published the 2003 edition of Fusion Here is an example: Snicker-snack! Snicker-snack! Slayer of Jabberwocks Vorpally vanquished his Frumious foe! See how your words become Incomprehensible When you insist that their Wages stay low? -Aaron Dinkin Submit Your Own double-dactyl (fusion@hcs.harvard.edu), to Fusion. The five winners will be published in the next issue, with preference given to double-dactyls that relate to speculative fiction. |