Double
Dactyl*
In
Defense of Reason
Pickety,
Snickety
Reason A. Goodwin is
using a lexicon
looking up words.
Reason’s a champion
alphaclopediack.
Not ev’ry intern can
find what is heard.
Author's Note:
Dr. Reason A. Goodwin, editor of World Book
Encyclopedia Dictionary, was a word judge on the
original Password Game Show.
I wrote "In
Defense of Reason" as an partial explanation for my poetry
pen name, Reason A. which my husband bestowed upon me a few
months into our marriage. His byline through our lifetime
together has been "Well, you just never know", to
which I always reply, "But, you can find out." The real
Reason A. is Dr. Reason A. Goodwin, editor of World
Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, the first word judge
on the originial Password Game Show. On the occasion of his
first opportunity to challenge a word on the show, Dr.
Goodwin picked up his famous dictionary and looked it
up...The producers in dismay exclaimed, "We could have hired
any (underling) to look up words in a dictionary" .1
*Double
Dactyl: The double dactyl is a recent light verse genre
in two quatrains invented by American poet Antony Hecht**
and Paul Pascal in the 1950's. The verse form required
the first line to be nonsense syllables such as
"Higgledy-piggledy", an alternative name for the form, and
the second line had to be a proper name such as Emily
Dickinson, Theodore Roosevelt, etc. The second line of the
second quatrain must be a polysyllable, often scientific or
technical, the more recondite or obscure the better. The
last line of the first and second quatrains must rhyme and
must comprise four syllables, a dactylic foot followed by a
stress. The other six lines are all hexasyllables of two
dactylic feet, hence the name.
The double
dactyl is notoriously flippant. In the 1960's Anthony
Hecht and John Hollander popularized the form in the first
collection of double dactyl. The form has proved to be
popular with a few writers including Annie Finch and Timothy
Steele, and Jan D. Hodge.
Notes
**In the
introduction to Jiggery-Pokery, edited by
Anthony Hecht and John Hollander, Antheneum, 1966, Hecht
discusses the origin of the form, which made its first
public appearance in the June 1966 issue of Esquire.
Sources
Preminger, Alex
and T.V.F. Brogan Editors, with Frank J. Warnke, O.B.
Hardison, Jr., and Earl Miner, Associate Editors. The
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: The Most
Coprehensive Guide to World Poetry. New York:
MJF Books, by Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 303.
Turco, Louis.
The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Third Edition.
Hanover: University Press of New England, 2000, pp.
172-173.
Quatrain
Mental Elegance
Though
some put on clothing in vain
not wearing clothes is cause for scandal.
In the world’s eyes, most ascertain
brain wear is not so fundamental.
Too few people reckon that thought
clearly requires well-fitting garments.
They seem content debating naught,
laying bare their unwitting comments.
Basic beliefs need thinking through
lest you find your hope bandied about.
Ask, seek and knock, learn well your view,
give your account with no cause for doubt.
In the world of credible quest,
wise speakers create fashion statements.
Naked thinkers must be a’dressed,
and impressed to make sound in vestments.
"morning breeze" Kukai Results;
"beach" haiku Thread;
About
Reason A. Poteet
Reason A.
Poteet was born in the US in Kentucky in 1943, moved to
Indiana in 1968, graduated with a Master's from Indiana
University in 1969. Married Henry in 1975, we have two sons
and two grandchildren. I am retired from teaching elementary
school for nearly forty years. My relationship with poetry
(with no formal training) began in 2005 after retirement and
I have published work in newspapers, anthologies and online
at several sites. I am a Christian and my passion for my
Lord is displayed in most of my 200+ pieces. I write under
the penname, Reason A. Poteet.
