Lost and Faun'd -or- A Pastoral Fixation

*See how to build your own doppelganger poem at the bottom...

Hoofhearted plopped upon a rock and muttered to himself a bit
While Knoteye paced, quite derelict, in flickers, skips, and flits.

“O Knoteye!” cried Hoofhearted, vexed, his fist beneath his chin.
The other faun ceased fidgeting and listened closely, leaning in.

A moment thus in silence passed, with faun-the-first at best beset.
“Hoofhearted?” Knoteye asked aloud, for Hoof had not responded yet.

Hoofhearted sighed, not looking up, and moaned, “It’s all for naught.”
It’s all for Knoteye, ne’er for naught, I’d dare not naught my all, Knot thought.

“The path, dear Hoof,” he said, instead, “is rarely ever evident.”
At this, Hoof laughed and then replied, “The path’s irrelevant!”

Said Knot, “If we’re to overcome this sore predicament…”
“Oh, spare me, Doctor Optimist!” Hoofhearted howled in argument,

“We’ve walked for days, a week at least! I fear this forest knows no bounds…”
“A limit, yes, this forest has, just none that yet we’ve found –

“There’s no such thing as endless woods!  If so, I’m sure we’d know.”
“But still the more we wander ‘round, the farther in we go!”

And so they bantered back and forth ‘til each was hoarse and harshly tired.
At last, the two collapsed as one into the brush and briars.

‘Twas Knot who turned to Hoof and smiled, and then apologized.
Hoofhearted kindly followed suit and set their petty scraps aside.

In truth, the two were blind, you see, with not a single eye between
And both had wandered ‘round the wood since neither had the other seen,

Nor had they asked, not even once, if either/or had eyes,
So on they’ll plod, incognizant, until the forest dies.

And then upon two stumps they’ll sit and bicker back and forth again,
Two sightless fauns with ragged pelts, together ‘til the end.


The Doppelganger:
-in my experience, this is only one I've seen...length isn't necessarily important, really just an endurance race against mental exhaustion.

Structure:
Basic Rhyming Couplets
Folding Inversion Pattern

Meter: (numbered for later)
1: Iambic Octameter
2: Iambic Heptameter

Mastering the Monster Meter:
The poem consists of four 4-line inversions, each separated by a buffer couplet (seen above in lines 5-6, 15-16), closing with a simple 4-line/2-line inversion.

Visually:

Lines 1-10:      1 2 2 1 ( 1 1 ) 2 1 1 2
Lines 11-20:    2 1 1 2 ( 2 2 ) 1 2 2 1
Lines 21-22:    1 1
Lines 22-23:    2 2
Lines 25-26:    1 2