Cambridge Dictionary defines the term ‘double or nothing’ as an agreement that the player who owes money will owe twice as much if they lose, but will owe nothing if they win

Merriam-Webster takes on a different approach with the win in mind, for ‘double or nothing,’ where the result is that a gambler either wins two times as much money as he or she has already won or loses all of the money.

While I don’t think I have placed such a bet anytime in my life, I have watched movies and shows where a character goes in for ‘double or nothing.’ Of course, many a time, the really-out-of-luck protagonist wins big and the seemingly-born-with-a-Midas-touch person loses it all, thus turning the course of their lives. And then there are the stories where the director decides to give the plot an unexpected twist as well. Seems to me that sometimes the movies end up confusing me on the actual way ‘double or nothing’ work, just like those two slightly contrasting definitions above have managed to already..

So dear reader, if you know what ‘double or nothing’ really means, can you let me know too? 🙂

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Why the Title: “Double or Nothing Can Be Truly Delightful”?

Well, as I was thinking about the poetic form for this Poetic Sunday, I noticed that January 16th is Anthony Hecht’s birthday (which I missed mentioning in last week’s Scribblings) as well as National Nothing Day. And Hecht is the creator of a delightfully difficult poetic form called the double dactyl. This led me to recall this term ‘double or nothing’ and thus the title!

Poetic Sundays: The Double Dactyl

Created by Anthony Hecht, Paul Pascal, and Naomi Pascal on one November day in 1951 over a shared lunch, the double dactyl is a witty, just the right size not to be itty-bitty, challenging enough to exercise our noodle, and totally fun to write it just right form!

What is the Double Dactyl Poetic Form?

The double dactyl poem is made up of eight lines of verse in two stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza are double datcyls, while the last lines in each stanza rhyme with each other and consist of a choriamb. In addition, the first line is a nonsensical phrase that usually rhymes, line two is a proper noun, and either line six or line seven must be a single-word double dactyl.

Purists of the form also follow this rule: No single-word double dactyl may ever be knowingly used again (by anyone)! Many choose to write the entire poem as a single sentence though I did not see any requirements that it be so.

Note: some sources say that the last line of each stanza can be a dactyl-spondee pair.

So what do choriamb, dactyl, and spondee mean?

• A choriamb a foot consisting of four syllables in the pattern long-short-short-long, like “down by the bay.”
• A dactyl is a metrical foot consisting of a long(or stressed) syllable followed by two short(or unstressed) syllables. For example, “poetry,” “basketball,” and “mockingbird” are all dactylic words.
• A spondee is two syllables, both long (or stressed), like “downtown,” or “ticktock”

The Double Dactyl Poetic Form’s Characteristics

So the double dactyl poetic form’s elements are that at its most basic, it is:

• stanzaic: made up of two quatrains (four-line stanzas)
• metered/syllabic: Lines 1-3 and 5-7 are double dactyls, while lines 4 and 8 are choriambs (and sometimes a dactyl-spondee pair).
• rhymed: Rhyme scheme of xxxa/xxxa (where x is unrhymed); in other words, lines 4 and 8 rhyme.
• themed: humorous, witty
• specifics: The first line is a nonsensical word or phrase, second line is a proper noun, while either lines six or seven must be a single-word double dactyl
• titled

Additional Notes/Tips

• The nonsensical word/phrase can of course also be made up or one of many you have heard.
• Check the notes added previously regarding not reusing the single-word double dactyl as well as trying to write the whole poem as a single sentence. This is however optional (but something purists of the form will want to follow)
• The proper noun can be someone/someplace real or fictional or even made up. For example, Jennifer Aniston and Ann Arbor, Michigan for real names of people and places; or Jonathan Livingston and Mooberry Avenue for made up/fictional ones!
• And then the single-word double dactyl: it can also be a made-up one; you can add -ly, -ify, -ion to words, or you can use macaronic language (words made up by combining words from many languages)

So this is how it looks

L1 – A double-dactyl nonsense word/phrase (x)
L2 – A double-dactyl proper noun (x)
L3 – double dactyl (x)
L4 – choriamb (a) OR dactyl-spondee pair (a)

L5 – double dactyl (x)
L6 – double dactyl OR single-word double dactyl (x)
L7 – single-word double dactyl OR double dactyl(x)
L8 – choriamb (a) OR dactyl-spondee pair (a)

Some examples to help you

A self-referential example by Roger L. Robison:

Long-short-short, long-short-short
Dactyls in dimeter,
Verse form with choriambs
(Masculine rhyme):

One sentence (two stanzas)
Hexasyllabically
Challenges poets who
Don’t have the time.

Check here for more inspiration and examples

My examples

Double or Nothing

Duplicate-duclicate
Tweedledee Tweedledum
Come from a epigram
Written by John

Piper he tweedled them
characteristically
Making a pair of them
Nothing, well, gone!
~ vidya tiru @ladyinreadwrites

Maddening…

Hickory-dickory
Oliver Prodigy
wrote some new poetry
that was so bad

Really terrible
Gobbledygookity
Questioning sanity
Making us mad!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

References, Further Reading, and h/t:

• How to Find the Stressed Syllable
• List of single-word double-dactyls
• Jiggery Pokery: A Compendium of Double Dactyls (Internet Archive)
• List of Stressed and Unstressed Words

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Recently

On My Blog & at Home

My recent posts since and including my last Sunday Scribblings:

• Sunday Scribblings #91: The Wondrous Word Nerd and Pretty Poetry
• A Magic Key to Grant Wondrous Wishes
• Crushing by Sophie Burrows: Book Review and Blog Tour
• Recent Additions to My Bookshelf and Vocabulary
• Thank You to the Elements For the Bountiful Harvest

We kind of had gone double or nothing on the booster shots when both hubby and I bravely decided to take the booster together. It was kind of a risk since we had no idea if one or both of us would have side effects (I did have side effects for both previous doses); and if both ended up with something because of it, then who would take our daughter to her classes and school? Or any other stuff around home as well? Luckily, we were both symptom free (except for a headache I did have for a couple of days with a sore arm)/

What about you? Are boosters available where you are? And if yes, then have you been boosted already?

Upcoming

On My Blog: Should I Say Double or Nothing (Against Last Week’s Total Posts)?

Mini-reviews are on the forecast again. And hopefully, I will go back and play catch up for the missing posts last week plus achieve the one thing I always aim for but do rarely, that is, schedule a couple posts. This way, I can do the ‘double’ of last week’s five posts!

And at home

Hopefully the weather gets warmer so we can spend more time in our backyard and on our garden to prepare it for spring, slowly but surely.

This Week’s Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week include: Jan 17th is Anne Brontë, Benjamin Franklin; the 18th of January is A.A. Milne; Edgar Allan Poe, Patricia Highsmith, and Julian Barnes on the 19th of January; Vanessa Diffenbaugh on January 20th; Francis Bacon, John Donne, and Lord Byron on the 22nd of Jan.
• January 18th is National Thesaurus Day and National Winnie The Pooh Day
• National Handwriting Day is on the 23rd of January

Foodie Celebrations

• National Hot Buttered Rum Day is on the 17th of January (and while I have never had it, it sounds like something perfect for cold winter days)
• January 19th happens to be National Popcorn Day as well as World Quark Day (have you ever had quark?). While I knew quark as a type of elementary particle, and initially assumed World Quark Day would be placed in ‘Other Celebrations,’ on reading about it, I realized that this quark being celebrated is different. This quark is a dairy product very similar to cottage cheese (but not really), and popular across Europe.
• The 20th of January is both National Buttercrunch Day and National Cheese Lover’s Day
• Followed by National Granola Bar Day on the 21st
• National Blonde Brownie Day is celebrated on the 22nd of January (and I do love baking these!)
• January 23rd is for another delight (savory and sweet); it is National Pie Day 

Other Celebrations

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day  is celebrated on the third Monday in January
• January 17th happens to be International Mentoring Day, so sign up to be a mentor to someone, or simply be one to anyone around you.
• It is National Disc Jockey Day on the 20th of January
• The 21st of January is National Hugging Day
• Celebration of Life Day is celebrated on the 22nd of January

Multi-day Celebrations

• The third full week of January is Hunt for Happiness Week
• National Healthy Weight Week and National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week both begin on the third Sunday in January (seems like both work out for each other)
• No Name-Calling Week – January 17-21, 2022

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post. And do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon