Doggerel is a crude verse form with little literary value, but it is an ancient and popular style of poetry. It is often humorous and can be graphic or crude. Nursery rhymes are a form of doggerel and are rarely collected, but sometimes appear in fiction and greeting cards. Some nursery rhymes are gibberish with made-up words, serving to establish a clear and simple rhythm.
Doggerel is a crude, often clumsily composed verse form, generally considered to be of little or no literary value. Despite the fact that people tend to look down on nursery rhymes, this style of verse is quite ancient, suggesting that humans may love it more than they care to admit. Numerous examples of the nursery rhyme can be found in popular culture, and in some cases verses particularly notable for posterity are recorded, in some cases in the form of graffiti and similar modes of expression.
The word “doggerel” comes from the Middle English dogge, meaning “dog.” For those who feel charitable towards canines, one might consider the doggerel a clumsy, puppy-like sound characterized by a childlike attitude. However, the term is far more likely to have evolved as a slur, meant to point out the futility of the verse in question, as “dog” has historically been used as a slur.
Doggerel is usually meant to be humorous and can be graphic or crude as well. You may notice some similarities between doggerel and limerick, but doggerel tends to have more forced and monotonous rhymes, while a good limerick can be quite light-hearted and sometimes extremely witty. Doggerel is often used as a form of composing mocking or jocular poetry, and some very famous poets have produced bits of doggerel as a joke, essentially making fun of themselves and the literary world.
Because the nursery rhyme is perceived to be of little value, it is rarely collected. Doggerel makes its way into the press when it is produced by someone notable, or strikes someone as particularly funny, talented, or witty. Sometimes the nursery rhyme appears in fiction, with one of the characters spitting out a few lines of nursery rhyme as a rash declaration of love or some other emotion, and some greeting cards have short lines that border on the brink of being considered nursery rhymes.
Some nursery rhymes are gibberish, with made-up words or crudely used words. In these cases the nonsense words serve to establish a clear and simple rhythm, interspersed with understandable verses or words. Some of these lines evolve into nursery rhymes, another form of verse that isn’t known for its elegant rhyme schemes or witty logic.
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