The form for the DD is strict about masculine rhymes on lines 4 and 8. For those times when feminine rhymes would be useful, we can switch to the McWhirtle. I had heard about the McWhirtle from Kenn Nesbit, the 'Rhymesaurus' softwear creator, so I started trying to find out more about it. I even tried John Mella, who said he was familiar with the form, but had none at hand as examples. I finally reached the author himself after much effort.
Dear Ann Landers
---------------------------
I'm really disgusted
With Myrtle McWhirtle,
The out-of-work bimbo
Residing next door.
She knows where to find
Herself honest employment
But chooses instead to be
Neighborhood whore.
Named for the example above, the "McWhirtle' is a relatively new verse form, created by Bruce Newling in 1989. It is much like a double dactyl, but each stanza opens with an iambus, followed by seven anapests. The metrical feet are allowed to rove over from one line to
the next. The last words of each stanza rhyme; rhymes elsewhere are optional.
To me, it seems much superior to the DD, both easier to compose and more enjoyable to read, especially when the author (Bruce again) can mix in other rhymes:
A scholar who lives in
The village of Cadder
Delivered a talk from
A rickety ladder.
So now he discourses
On physical forces
That clearly have made him
Much wiser if sadder.
Note here, with the feminine rhymes, the stanzas can also be said to be amphibrachic dimeter, as well as one iamb and seven (roving) anapests, with a trailing syllable the end.
Mr. Newling is a retired professor of geography who occasionally taught basic writing and English as a Second Language during his career. His light verse has appeared in such anthologies as 'How to Be Well-Versed in Poetry' (Viking, 1990), and 'The Random House Treasury of Light Verse' (Random House, 1995). He resides in New Brunswick, NJ
(USA).
I just had to try one myself, of course:
Said Quintus Horatius,
"Dear me, and good gracious!"
It seems that we rocked him
And terribly shocked him:
He found us translating
His adage on dating,
'Carpe diem', misstating
His tip, 'carpe noctem'.
First try wrong, as usual. Can anyone spot my slip?
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