Reposted For Freshness
Poetic Forms through the ages: The Deheoglonic
Part One:
The Deheoglonic form (not to be confused with the Deheoglosic) originated in Greece in approximately the year 1702. The first published example known is dated 1704, but has been authenticated to be from 1703. Since those early days, more than ten thousand Deheoglons have been written, almost half of those in Canada. Among the most famous and outspoken proponents of the Deheoglon was Martin Farquhar Tupper, who, in 1840 said "The Deheoglonic style is without match in the world of poetic forms. There are none like it, and there never need be another form beyond it."
The Deheoglonic form is one of the more specific forms. It consists of twelve verses of nine lines each, in iambic dodecameter, with the rhyme scheme ABCDEFBDG. These twelve verses are interspersed with a chorus which must be in the form:
"And she died, oh oh oh,
She died, Oh oh oh oh she died"
The Deheoglon is almost unique in another way: The events in the poem must be real historical events which took place in Ireland, in the year 1642. This fact stems from the belief of originator of the Deheoglonic form, Philemothy of Sethpheth (a small village outside Athens), that the world, in fact, ended in the year 1642, and that we must examine all of the historical events of that year in order to find out precisely when and why, and that a poem in the deheoglonic form could, if properly written, bring the world back.
Some writers in the 1870's, seeking to broaden the scope of the form, began writing about fictionalized events set in that year, but which certainly could have happened. The then 60-year-old Tupper said of these poets: "Hang them."
The Fictionalized Deheoglon, dubbed the Deheoglosic poem, was a very short lived art form, and quickly devolved into the Spatzanoid, or Dreciaux form (q.v.).
The Deheoglon continued to be a favorite poetic form until 1936 when it was made illegal in Canada by a clause in the United States national budget of that year. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said of the Deheoglon: "It is my belief that the people of America will fare far better without such evils in their lives. The future of America is a future without Tupper."
It is now known that Theodore Roosevelt maintained an ongoing rivalry with Tupper, and that those animosities were passed down to his fifth cousin.
Examples of the Deheoglon are almost impossible to find in either country to this day, even though the law was later repealed under the administration of George H. W. Bush (the senior of the two Bush presidents). In the ensuing years, the form was all but forgotten, even overseas where it originated. Currently, only one Deheoglonic poet is known to be writing, and he from a small cottage on an island off the coast of Turkey, near Cyprus. He has no direct means of outside communication, and the poems wash up in empty bottles on the beach where they are promptly confiscated and burned by members of the Turkish army.

Part 2:

An example of the fabled Deheoglonic form, only one verse long, sadly, as the rest of the poem seems to have been lost. Notice how the interspersion of topics almost gives it the qualities of the French Dreciaux, and the similarity of them makes it resemble the Swiss Dreciaux. However, the real treat in this poem, obviously a late example (ca. 1933), probably Canadian, is the intralinear rhymes in lines 3 and 9. This means that the form was clearly influenced by the Rhineodactic form (an American form, ca. 1860, last written example 1886), but it clearly is not, as the Rhineodactic will never include the proper name of an European man. The half-rhyme on the first line (dim and Kilkenn) is truly problematic. Whereas first-line intralinear rhymes are strictly forbidden in the Deheoglon (or at least, in later Deheoglons), this is not a true rhyme, and thus, I feel, does not exclude it from the form. In fact, this poem was spared the torches of World War II America, probably specifically because of this rhyme. It is possible that it was penned in order to avoid the censorship of the day. Thus, this is a true Deheoglon, but with the influences and history that make the later forms truly fascinating. Please, read and enjoy, as this may be the last example of its kind in the western world.

Oh, Lo, tho on that night so dim when naught but night could puncture sill did meet the council of Kilkenn'
Eoghan Rua O'Neill did take into his own the armies of Ulstrine Catholici-sm
The council's moot it did decide the fate of those with dwellings thus in ire'land's greened country-side
Eoghan Rua O'Neill's return did mark the rise of Ire'land's church, and thus catholocism's hold
The Council's news did bring return to Ire'land continental troops that knew the ways of war and such
Eoghan Rua O'Neill was one, from flanders' army taught to fight for forty years he there had trained
That kilkenny council did a body politic erect and aim to heal the irish schizm'
Eoghan Rua O'Neill gave hope to all of those who oft had said the catholic bell its last had toll'd
And thus the irish armies grew and strong the government it too did set to rights the woes of past
And she died, oh oh oh,
She died, Oh oh oh oh she died

Part 3:

A Spatzanoid Ballad from the Archives of Amundsen, a collection of derivative verse since 1880, published in 1949. This shining example of the corruption of the form was written in 1904, in April, by a poet who chose to remain anonymous. It has been blamed variously on Clement C. Moore of America and Rhadger Dhandridge of India (Although English by birth). Neither of these authors, though, was in Wyoming during the short time during which this verse was clearly written.
The use of a centipede in the ear is a reference placing the poem's author in either Helena, Montana in 1902, or Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1904. Aumndsen, who collected the verse, claims that the original manuscript, preserved in a fish market, wrapped around a particularly tasty trout he purchased, was dated 1904. The phrase had already fallen out of popular use by 1903 in Helena, placing the poet squarely in Cheyanne.
The initial quotation is a reference to the earlier form, the Driuceauic, from which the Spazanoid arose. In the Driuceauic, quotes from Deheoglons often graced the initial lines, giving them at least some air of quality, despite their obvious flaws. Note that the forms had at this point almost completely collapsed. The quote here is actually from a mislabled Deheoglosic, titled "Mary And Her Haircut" (believed to be a Deheoglon until the discovery that Mary MacMurry, who lived in Dublin for most of her life, was not born until 1648, placing the poem squarely in the realm of fiction). Apparently the poet believed one as good as another, as was common in American Western Poets in the early part of the 20th century.
In lines 3-5, note the allusion to a poem by Emily Dickinson, an act of literary heresy in the day akin to referring to Coleridge as "That Blind Git." It is this act that, combined with geographic difficulties, absolutely excuse Moore and Dhandridge of the commission of this poem.

"Are you still alive my friend?"
He kindly asked of me
As I could not answer for myself
he kindly spoke for me.
"I feel just peachy, since you ask,
alive in word and deed,"
And saying this, into my ear,
he placed a centipede.
It wiggled there, and squirmed a bit
it felt rather a fright
And there he sat a'singing as I
ran into the night.
His verse, I fear was terrible
and it is from that I run,
Oh, that gem from Tupper,
that wretched deheoglon,
"and she died, oh oh oh
she died oh oh oh oh she died."