Don's Spanking Pages

"Double Dactyls" are brief verses with a strict form, not unlike limericks, but a bit less common, and some find them a bit harder to write. They must have a dactylic meter (or rhythm), unlike the iambic meter which is used in most limericks and much other verse. (A well known example of dactylic meter is the opening of Longfellow's Hiawatha, "This is the forest primeval, the murmering locusts and pines...") A double dactyl must have exactly four lines, each of four dactylic feet, and the 2nd and 4th lines rhyme. A double dactyl must contain at least one double-dactyl-word, that is a single word consisting of exactly two dactylic feet, or half a line. (e.g. monomanically, incontrovertibly, omnium-gatherum, pesudomonastical, etc.) This is usualy the first half of the first line, but not always. (Some use a nonsense word, such as "Higgledy-piggledy", but I think that that is cheating, or at least a second rate practice.) A classic example is:

Ultradejectedly, Ludwig von Bethoven
sat in his music room, sucking his thumb.

"Heavens to Murgatroyd, after four symphonies
more could be asked of me?" Da-Da Da-DUM.

(the last phrase should, of course, suggest the theme from the famous Fifth Symphony)

Frequently double dactyls are used to give a short humerous or ironic sketch of a personality, a "Brief Biography". (The example above is of this type, sort of.) In other cases, they are used as comments on a literary work, a "Brief Critique". In either case, a proper name is usually included, often in the 2nd half of the first line (the third and fourth feet). (Some would make this another rule of the form-- there must be a proper name somewhere.) An example of this, written by a "friend of a friend" is:

Monomaniacially, Thomas Sterns Elliot
wrote in The Waste Land a lyrical lay.

Sadly, for those of us, hollow like other men
Incomprehensible! Take it away!

I have long enjoyed this somewhat tricky form. (In fact I once wrote an entire and quite legal will entirely in alternating double dactyls and limericks. But I was young then.) I have written several double dactyls comenting on stories posted to SSS. Here they are. You should be able to find the stories to which these verses refer on Google, in the months indicated below each verse. I may add more to the list if they occur to me.

"Brief Critiques"

John Benson's "The Perfect Image"

Ultra-artistically, Mr. John Benson has
written a story I greatly adore

When asked for sequels says: "Lady-or-tiger-like,
"The Image is perfect now, I won't write more."

-DAL
April 2000



Lurking Dragon's "Cabin Boy" (Parts 1 & 2)

Uncharacteristically, Lurk Drag's new "Cabin Boy"
Ends with reversal of sharp edgy play

Unsatisfiedly, some for a sequel shout
I say its quite complete -- more Melody, pray?

-DAL
July 2000



Nadia A Salem's "Ageplay Orphanage" (Part 1)

Incontrovertibly, Nadia's Orphanage
sounds like an interesting venue for play

I like it better than her other series, so
write some more sections and I'll say "Hooray!"


-DAL
July 2000

Here is a double-dactyl on recent events in the online spanking world. I may add more current events to this list in time, or I may not.

SSS restored

(Copyright (c) 2001 by Don A. Landhill)

Ultra-regretably, soc.sexuality
sufferd the lack of a clued ISP

Enthusastically, I see its up again
Amy and Don both get, Big thanks from me.

-D. A. L. May 2001

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