Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. 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.

Published in Group Writing
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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Top that, y’all! This is Group Writing for July, and you need to get in on this.

    • #1
    • July 1, 2020, at 12:52 PM PDT
    • 5 likes
  2. RightAngles Member

    I hate liver,
    Liver makes me quiver.
    Liver makes me curl right up and die
    Makes me CRY

    • #2
    • July 1, 2020, at 12:55 PM PDT
    • 11 likes
  3. She Reagan
    She Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    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.

    “Namoore of this, for Goddes dignitee,”
    Quod oure Hooste, “for thou makest me
    So wery of thy verray lewednesse,
    That also wisly God my soule blesse,
    Min eres aken of thy drasty speche.
    Now swich a rym the devel I biteche!
    This may wel be rym dogerel,” quod he.
    “Why so?” quod I, “why wiltow lette me
    Moore of my tale than another man
    Syn that it is the beste tale I kan?”–The Tale of Sir Thopas, The Canterbury Tales

    (She’s rough translation):

    “For God’s sake, knock it off!” shouted the host. “You’re much too rude and crude, and I’m sick of it. As God is my witness, you’re making my ears hurt with all your flapdoodle and inconsequential rubbish. Those sorts of rhymes belong to the devil, and he can keep them. Everything you’re saying is total crap doggerel.”

    “Whatever do you mean?” I asked. Why won’t you let me tell my tale, like you’ve let all the rest, since I, like them, am doing the best that I can.”

    • #3
    • July 1, 2020, at 1:35 PM PDT
    • 8 likes
    • This comment has been edited.
  4. Judge Mental Member

    That was awful. So, about average for you.

    • #4
    • July 1, 2020, at 1:40 PM PDT
    • 10 likes
  5. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Judge Mental (View Comment):

    That was awful. So, about average for you.

    Thank you.

    • #5
    • July 1, 2020, at 1:52 PM PDT
    • 10 likes
  6. Richard Fulmer Member

    Why “doggerel”? Why not “catterel”?

    • #6
    • July 1, 2020, at 2:05 PM PDT
    • 4 likes
  7. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Richard Fulmer (View Comment):

    Why “doggerel”? Why not “catterel”?

    It’s a very good question. It’s because cats are always poetry in motion.

    • #7
    • July 1, 2020, at 2:17 PM PDT
    • 6 likes
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Of course, @misthiocracy would have given you the real etymology, but what fun would that be?

     

    • #8
    • July 1, 2020, at 2:19 PM PDT
    • 4 likes
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Oh, also, this is all @cliffordbrown ‘s fault. If you sign up for Group Writing, you can blame him, too.

    • #9
    • July 1, 2020, at 2:57 PM PDT
    • 5 likes
  10. Clifford A. Brown Contributor

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Top that, y’all! This is Group Writing for July, and you need to get in on this.

    Whether your own bit of verse or an appreciation or even deprecation of other verse, do stop by and sign up!

    • #10
    • July 1, 2020, at 3:03 PM PDT
    • Like
  11. The Reticulator Member

    I thought you were a cat person.

    • #11
    • July 1, 2020, at 4:02 PM PDT
    • Like
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    I thought you were a cat person.

    I am, but I enjoy doggerel, too.

    • #12
    • July 1, 2020, at 4:33 PM PDT
    • 1 like
  13. Fritz Coolidge

    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

     

    • #13
    • July 1, 2020, at 4:37 PM PDT
    • 6 likes
  14. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Of course, @misthiocracy would have given you the real etymology, but what fun would that be?

     

    Actually, you got it pretty much right.

    • #14
    • July 1, 2020, at 7:50 PM PDT
    • 2 likes
  15. Cal Lawton Member
    Cal Lawton Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Oh my gosh, this reads like a drinking club with a writing problem.

    • #15
    • July 1, 2020, at 7:51 PM PDT
    • 10 likes
  16. Arahant Member
    Arahant

    Cal Lawton (View Comment):

    Oh my gosh, this reads like a drinking club with a writing problem.

    Have you ever been in the PIT, Cal?

    • #16
    • July 1, 2020, at 8:02 PM PDT
    • 3 likes
  17. Ontheleftcoast Member

    I believe that according to Kipling the perpetrator of doggerel can be called a doggaroo.

    • #17
    • July 1, 2020, at 8:27 PM PDT
    • 6 likes
    • This comment has been edited.
  18. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    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?

     

    • #18
    • July 1, 2020, at 10:27 PM PDT
    • 8 likes
  19. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    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. 

    • #19
    • July 1, 2020, at 10:57 PM PDT
    • 9 likes
  20. MichaelHenry Inactive

    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!

    • #20
    • July 2, 2020, at 3:46 AM PDT
    • 3 likes
  21. RightAngles Member

    If called by a panther,
    Don’t anther.

    —-Ogden Nash

    • #21
    • July 2, 2020, at 1:57 PM PDT
    • 4 likes