Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan d.S.
This form was cooked up by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander in the 1960s. Their book, Jiggery-Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls (NY: 1967) is great fun.
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I love
Jiggery-Pokery -- a light verse landmark. And I have more than once told people that Hollander and Hecht co-created the form. But I think I've been wrong every time. I'm pretty sure I read something by Hollander (maybe in
Rhyme's Reason?) in which he says he simply helped Hecht to popularize the form, which Hecht invented either by himself or with somebody else.
As for "Higgledy-piggledy," Cope didn't coin that, or originate the idea of using it as the first line of a double dactyl. It's the default line 1 for many, many examples of the form. (But I'm with Jayne in preferring to use something different.)