Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Double Dactyls

Inspired by this and this, I spent a good while in the shower this morning trying to put one together this morning. Trying to build it around Leigh's name and Zachary's penchant for stealing our sleep, I had a bit of a problem coming up with a 6 syllable word for the second verse and gave up on that. I did however come up with an Iolanthe based one, although strictly speaking I'm not sure that the very final line works. My guess is that the first word really belongs on the penultimate line, otherwise the natural stress of the syllables doesn't quite fit. Also wasn't sure whether the second line of the first stanza (which should be a person's name) really counts - came up with "Queen of the Fairies; Banished I'lanthe" as an alternative but I prefer the way the version below scans.

Spoke to L about the first double dactyl this evening and he saved the day by coming up with "insomniacally" for the second stanza - probably not a real word but it fits! So below we have the 2 I attempted today and one I found in "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman.

1. Airily, fairily
Poor Iolanthe, she's
Banished by fairies
Because of her son

Dad's the Lord Chanc'llor, so
Strephon's half-human, yet
Anachronistic'lly
Looks older than Mum.

2. Mapely, stapely
Leigh Bobby Caple is
New Dad to Zachary
- 4 week old son

'Sweet' little Zachary
Insomniacally
Robs Leigh of bedtime sleep
Mutinous one!

3. Hankety pankety
Boy in a blanket, he's
Off on a goose-chase to
Look for a star

Incontrovertibly
Journeys through Faerie
Strip off the blanket to
See who you are.

2 comments:

Leigh said...

Stop Press!!

Kathryn has worked out how to fix the Iolanthe one!

She'll update in the morning (has something stuck on her boob presently!)

Niles said...

Huzzah!

You could make Z scan with a suffix, like the Japanese -san

Crippity Crappity
Zachary Caple-san
Likes to feed slowly so
Mummy can't type

Her patience rewarded by
Faeco-exuberance;
Mummy is left with a
Bottom to wipe