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Group Writing: Doggerel
Doggerel
Doggerel, doggerel, doggerel, doggerel,
Doggerel, doggerel, doggerel, cattical,
Doggerel, doggerel, doggerel, mousical,
We’re gonna have some fun with doggerel.
Every word I’ve ever written
By keyboard or a pen was scritten,
(It is a new word, don’t have a kitten!)
Was by a bit of doggerel bitten.
To flame a poet for writing doggerel
When using the tongue of the great mongerel
Just shows you don’t know a duke from an Errol
Or German Shepherd from short-faced Puggerel.
So, here’s to English, a bastard language
Born of Norman and Saxon anguish
As forms of old were mashed together.
(Why didn’t that rhyme?) (Because it was better!)
And so our poetry is quite antithetical
With syllables and accents and rhythms combatical
And five types of meters to make it all metrical,
Even when it is merely abominable.
Top that, y’all! This is Group Writing for July, and you need to get in on this.
I hate liver,
Liver makes me quiver.
Liver makes me curl right up and die
Makes me CRY
Reading your doggerel isn’t a chore, Sir.
It doesn’t tie one up in knots like a ships hawser.
It’s entertaining, and never a bore, Sir.
Almost as much fun as riding in a flying saucer.
I’m grateful to the man with the esprit de corps, Sir
The one, you might say, who opened the door, Sir.
It wasn’t a cowboy or an Indian squaw, Sir
But that jack of all trades the great Geoffrey Chaucer.
(She’s rough translation):
That was awful. So, about average for you.
Thank you.
Why “doggerel”? Why not “catterel”?
It’s a very good question. It’s because cats are always poetry in motion.
Of course, @misthiocracy would have given you the real etymology, but what fun would that be?
Oh, also, this is all @cliffordbrown ‘s fault. If you sign up for Group Writing, you can blame him, too.
Whether your own bit of verse or an appreciation or even deprecation of other verse, do stop by and sign up!
I thought you were a cat person.
I am, but I enjoy doggerel, too.
Don’t know if it qualifies as doggerel, but I have always been tickled by the lyrics to the Gershwin song that starts:
I’m bidin’ my time
‘Cause that’s the kinda guy I’m
Actually, you got it pretty much right.
Oh my gosh, this reads like a drinking club with a writing problem.
Have you ever been in the PIT, Cal?
I believe that according to Kipling the perpetrator of doggerel can be called a doggaroo.
Did I tell you about the elephant, who tried to use the telephant?
No no, I mean the elephone, who tried to use the telephone?
A one L lama, that’s a priest
A two LL llama, that’s a beast
And I’ll bet you a silk pajama
You’ve never seen a three L lllama.
Very impressive and entertaining, Arahant. Your breadth of knowledge is impressive. I’ll be doggerelgone if I understand how you come up with this stuff!
If called by a panther,
Don’t anther.
—-Ogden Nash