[Jerome Betts]

The new 'Permanent President of the European Council' is the Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy (5 syllables pronounced 'Rompow') aka 'Haiku Herman', as he writes them in Flemish. As all Flemings know, 'Dat is een Japanse dichtvorm. met een vers van vijf lettergrepen, dan eentje van 7 lettergrepen en ten slotte nog een vers van vijf lettergrepen.'
The new European 'High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Public Security' (further shades of Titipu) is Baroness Ashton (5 syllables pronounced 'Ashton') of Upholland, not that Holland

Anyone care to supply the middle seven syllables to link this couple in appropriate style, or immortalise them jointly or singly in any other form?

Presumbaly Tony Blair's undercarriage (cf John Whitworth) is now safe.

[John Whitworth]

Herman Van Rompuy
Fancied rumpy-pumpy with
Baroness Ashton.

Though I must say it sounds unlikely.

Sometimes a statement of the bleeding obvious is the only way to go.

[Michael Cantor]

Eurocrat-bureaucrat
Herman Van Rompuy, he
never did evil, and
never did good.

Baroness Ashton, she
characteristically,
stated she possibly
would if she could.

[Ann Drysdale]

Well, that not only sums up the situation perfectly, it ticks all the Hecht/Hollander boxes as well. I am in awe!

[FOsen]

Well and truly double-dactylled!

[Maryann Corbett]

Originally Posted by Ann Drysdale

Well, that not only sums up the situation perfectly, it ticks all the Hecht/Hollander boxes as well. I am in awe!

Ann, I have to ask a dumb question in order to learn. Tell me about these "Hecht/Hollander boxes." I assume these two must have set some sort of requirements for poems of some type; please enlighten me.

[Ann Drysdale]

It's a form dreamed up by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander - the Double Dactyl. The rules are as follows.

The poem consists of two stanzas, each a quatrain. The first three lines of each are formed by two dactyls, the fourth a single dactyl and a macron. The last line rhymes with the fourth. The first line is nonsense (Higgledy-Piggledy is often called into play, and is sometimes used as an alternative name for the form). The second line is a proper noun; titles are allowed (as Alfred Lord Tennyson). One of the double dactyllic lines must consist of a single word. Foreign languages are encouraged, since the inventors expressed the hope that "this will restore macaronic verse to the dignity it has not enjoyed since the middle ages".

The name - double dactyl - suggests two fingers. This is not an accident.

Here is Babette Deutsch's explanatory example;

Fiddlety-diddlety
Hecht atque Hollander,
Didacts and wits with a
Soupçon of Sade

Made of the form that the
Former invented an
UltraDraconian
Joke on the fade.

[Maryann Corbett]

Ah! Thanks, Ann. I knew about double dactyls--one learns about them quickly on Drills and Amusements. But I had no idea that Hecht and Hollander were their originators, so that's my new bit of info for the day.

[Orwn Acra]

Well, if you really want to be pedantic, the single word line must have never been used before in another double dact. So UltraDraconian would work, but characteristically would not.

I like double dactyls a lot for the sole reason that they're the only complicated form I can do really well.

[Michael Cantor]

Haiku is difficult - little room to maneuver


Herman Van Rompuy
dreams of an ad - Strict Restraints:
Baroness Ashton


Naah - double-D's are more fun. But here's an improvement:


Herman Van Rompuy
Seeks out Doms with haughty names
Baroness Ashton!