Developed by John Skelton (Happy Hank, the Wife
Slayers poetic mentor and court poet), these are satirical rhymed dipodic lines. It is also known as Tumbling Verse. This requires explaining the
difference between podic and accentual-syllabic verse. With accentual-syllabic verse, every syllable counts, both stressed and unstressed. If a line of verse
is iambic pentameter, it will be ten syllables alternating between unstressed and stressed as: da_DUM da_DUM da_DUM da_DUM da_DUM.
I dived beneath the desk to hide from her.
Podic verse was kind of a looser midway point between the alliterative accentuals of the Anglo-Saxons and the accentual-syllabics that Chaucer adapted into
English based on French forms that were rhymed and syllabic. So, podic verse is usually rhymed and has a certain number of stresses in the line, but the number
of unstressed syllables doesnt count. A dipodic line has two stresses. It might have from zero to four unstressed syllables, so the line can vary from
two to six syllables and still be dipodic.
Her eyes aflame
Although this quatrain varies between two and four syllables per line, they are all dipodic.
cast her claim
Skeltons rhyming was also inconsistent. He might rhyme two lines in a row or ten, then hed change rhynmes for another indeterminate length, and
then do it again.