Doggerel

Doggerel is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. The word is derived from the Middle English dogerel, probably a diminutive of dog. In English it has been used as an adjective since the fourteenth century and a noun since at least 1630.

Appearing since ancient times in the literatures of many cultures, it is characteristic of nursery rhymes and children's song.

Examples

The Scottish poet William McGonagall is famous for his doggerel, which is remembered with affection by many despite its seeming technical flaws, as in his poem The Tay Bridge Disaster:

            That your central girders would not have given way,
            At least many sensible men do say,
            Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
            At least many sensible men confesses,
            For the stronger we our houses do build,
            The less chance we have of being killed.

Julia A. Moore, the "The Sweet Singer of Michigan," was a surprising best seller in 1876 with her Sentimental Song Book, despite the ineptitude of her poetry.

Ogden Nash made a virtue of writing what appears to be doggerel but is actually clever and entertaining despite its apparent technical faults. Hip hop lyrics have also explored the artful possibilities of doggerel.

Shakespeare uses doggerel in The Comedy of Errors to help establish the intellectual and socioeconomic status of the Dromio twins (III.i).

See also

• Accentual verse
• Crambo
• Knittelvers
• Nonsense poetry