Books: HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY

New light-verse forms are as rare as septuplets, and as vulnerable. Latest in the long line of poetic inventions—and, it is to be hoped, not too vulnerable—is the double dactyl, the result of a collaboration of two poet-professors, Anthony Hecht of Bard College and John Hollander of Hunter. According to the rules set forth in Jiggery-Pokery (112 pages; Atheneum; $3.95), all the poems must begin with a double-dactyl nonsense line such as “higgledy-piggledy” or “jiggery-pokery.” Thereafter comes a famous name—also double dac tylic—followed by another double dactyl and a line of four beats. Then it begins all over again, ending, like all jokes, with a punch line. To make things more sporting, somewhere along the way is a double-dactylic line of one word. Example:

Higgledy-piggledy Hans Christian Andersen Sat with some towheaded Lads on a shelf,

Mythopoetically Hoping that fairytales Aided in keeping his Hans to himself.

As the practitioner grows more skilled, he may proceed to literary allusions, and even, in the case of Crime and Punishment, to dialect:

Higgledy-piggledy Rodya Raskolnikov Belted two dames with a Broad-bladed ax. ” I am the wictim of Misericordia, Beaten,” said he, “by re-Legion and sax.”

Or to history:

Higgledy-piggledy, Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President, Was, and, as such,

Served between Clevelands, and Save for this trivial Idiosyncracy, Didn’t do much.

As rhythmically insidious as the clack of rails under a train, double dactyls have already infected Eastern campuses, and may soon spread cross-country. If they do, the book’s collaborators are forewarned:

Higgledy-piggledy Anthony/Hollander Two poetasters who Write with one hand

Soon have to issue new

Co-miscellanea

If they’re to live off the

Fad of the land.