After someone on rmf said it would be quite a challenge to write verse that was technically both masculine- and double-rhymed

Masculine Doubles

TTTO: 'Soldiers of our Queen', from Patience

If you want to encompass the self-contradictory
  Form of a double but masculine rhyme
Have all of your endings constrained to be stricter, e-
  quating the offbeats and keeping in time

The trip of a trochee with downbeat emphatical
  Flow of enjambment to run-on a line
Unorthodox syntax that's quasi-grammatical
  Poetic licence averting a fine
Seduction of endings deceptively feminine
  Shifting of stresses to make them align
Removal of elements, root, branch and stem in in-
  sistent attempts at perfecting a rhine ("sorry, 'rhyme'")
The cheerfully bawdy content of a limerick
Haiku, in English essentially chimeric
Ottava rima, with structure inviolate 
Sestina, villanelle, rondeau and triolet
  Sparkling epigram, rhetoric terse
  Icelandic saga and heroic verse

    Sift through these forms for a feature instillable
    Focus upon the penultimate syllable
    Pull out an optional rhyme from a sleeve
    And a masculine double is what you achieve

If you want to perfect this appeal to perversity
  Steal from the masters of old, if you can
The rhythms of Kipling in all their diversity
  Poe, who proceeded according to plan
The panache of Lehrer reciting The Elements
  Hopkins, whose lines are a trial to scan
The visions of Coleridge, whose dreams would compel him, in-
  spiring verse without measure to man 
The ripple of Swinburne, quite incomprehensible
Joyce and his followers, even less sensible 
Snippets of Carroll, both curious and quizzical
Marvell and Donne with conceits metaphysical
  William McGonagall, Chesterton, Pope
  Gilbertansullivan, Strugnell 'n' Cope

    Sift through their verses for lines ending stressedly
    Notice the options that lurk there unguessedly
    Give them a barely perceptible tweak
    And a masculine double is what you will wreak


Notes: Wendy Cope is a marvellous poet and parodist, whose fictional creation, Jason Strugnell, writes imitative verse in the manner of various famous poets. The 'according to plan' bit refers to the essay in which Poe outlines the severely intellectual side of 'The Raven's creation. Gilbertansullivan is, of course, the delightful author of 'The Soldiers of our Queen', whose tune this filk steals unapologetically.


Copyright © Martin DeMello , Feb 10, 2002