Dirty Dogs — What is Doggerel?
What is doggerel? It is more than bad poetry.
I write doggerel for good or evil because it is fun to write, a versatile verse form, and persuasive—a "dog" sticks in one's mind and ear like lint sticks on a sweater.
Shakespeare skewers some poor Poet's epic "dog" when he has Bottom recite these lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I can hear the snickering from the groundlings in the pit resounding down the corridors of Time. This is a bad poetry form of Doggerel.
The raging rocks
And shivering shocks
Shall break the locks
Of prison gates;
And Phibbus’ car
Shall shine from far
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
Doggerel is everywhere.
Definition: Doggerel, a standard or trivial form of verse, loosely constructed and often irregular but adequate because of its simple mnemonic rhyme and loping meter. It appears in most literature and societies as a valuable form of comedy and satire. OED.
Benjamin Franklin, a man of letters, wrote, rewrote, and sent by post to his friends varied versions of his Epitaph throughout his lifetime. Ben wrote the first edition of his Epitaph when he was 22. Uncle Ben found doggerel helpful and more than a little amusing. Ben "made bank" and his Epitaph with doggerel. I am still…
