"Think of 'light verse' not as mere triviality but as a special form of illumination. The double dactyl makes its own claims, and does its own work. It has grown over time. Take a look at JIGGERY-POKERY SEMICENTENNIAL: you will find God's plenty, wittily miniaturized. The new double dactyls collected by Messrs. Groves and Williamson prove individually and collectively that having once 'learned' the rules of the form, a poet may produce a learned work, a poem both 'simple, sensuous, and passionate' (Milton's desideratum) and playful, witty, even intellectual . The poets in these pages have extended the boundaries of Hecht and Hollander's original definitions, and of their anthology of half a century ago. One hopes that the old masters would have approved. Contained in this slim volume, readers will find poems that are didactic, secular, witty, and ironic, as well as illuminating: often sensuous and passionate, perhaps even simple. Their illumination comes, in fact, from their didactic wit." --from Willard Spiegelman's introduction