Yuletide Double Dactyl Poem by Harley White

[The double dactyl has a fixed structure. There must be two stanzas, each comprising three lines of dactylic dimeter (¯ ˘ ˘ ¯ ˘ ˘) followed by a line consisting of just a choriamb (¯ ˘ ˘ ¯) . The two stanzas have to rhyme on their last lines. The first line of the first stanza must be a nonsense phrase. The second line of the first stanza is the subject of the poem, which is supposed to be a double-dactylic proper noun, i.e., a proper or place name. There is also a requirement for at least one line, preferably the antepenultimate line of the second stanza, usually the sixth line, to be entirely one double dactyl word. Some purists still follow Hecht and Pascal's original rule that no single six-syllable word, once used in a double dactyl, should ever be knowingly used again.]

Painting ~ Leopold Karl Walter Graf von Kalkreuth (1855 - 1928)~ Children by the Christmas tree