Doggerel

ABC Wednesday
and the letter this week is D

D as in Doggerel

 

Here we have a "low or trivial form of verse, loosely constructed and often irregular, but effective because of its simple mnemonic rhyme and loping metre.  It appears in most literatures and societies as a useful form for comedy and satire..."

 

My favourite writer of 'doggerel' is Ogden Nash.  Although his verse may sound nonsensical I am, nevertheless, impressed with his take on life and his attitude towards the things that might make others morose and melancholy!!!

 

I quote - ' his rhymes are jarringly off or disconcertingly exact, and his ragged stanzas vary from lines of one word to lines that meander the length of a paragraph, often interrupted by inapposite digressions".

 

But I think you will enjoy these few examples from Nash's 'Good Intentions'.

 

Presenting Dr. Fell

(and Nash has expanded on this unfortunate chap in other poems)

 

I know a man whom because he isn't a doctor I think of as Dr. Fell,

And I do not love him for reasons which I am delighted to tell.

Although he is a good citizen and a respected vestryman

He is unfit to be either a motorist or a pedestriman.

His is the car always approaching just as you are about to step off the curb, but you don't mind him,

Because you plan to cross as soon as he passes, because the next car is half a mile behind him

But with your plan he plays havoc,

Because you have forgotten that he moves at the pace of molasses in Reykjaavik,

And by the time he is gone and you are ready to step on the street.

Why the traffic formerly half a mile behind him has descended on you with the speed and power of a husband quashing his wife's suggestions for the disposition of the fleet.

Dr. Fell is he who when as a dutiful driver you halt for the red,

Stands on the corner with a newspaper buried in his head;

Until you start to start with the green;

When he steps in front of you with the carefree countenance of one who is beginning the beguine.

Such is Dr. Fell, and I fear that I shall never be a friend of him

Particularly as long as he parks his car in a two-car space with half a space sticking out at each end of him.

 

The Gander

 

Be careful not to cross the gander,

A bird composed of beak and dander.

His heart is filled with prideful hate

Of all the world except his mate,

And if the neighbours do not err

He's overfond of beating her.

Is she happy?  What's the use

Of trying to psychoanalyze a goose?

 

Samson Agonistes

 

I test my bath before I sit,

And I'm always moved to wonderment

That what chills the finger not a bit

Is so frigid upon the fundament.

 

Assorted Chocolates

 

If some confectioner were willing

To let the shape announce the filling,

We'd encounter fewer assorted chocs,

Bitten into and returned to the box.

 

The Porpoise

 

I kind of like the playful porpoise,

A healthy mind in a healthy corpus.

He and his cousin, the playful dolphin,

Why they like swimmin like I like golphin.

 

Well, I could go on and on, but if you wish to read more of Ogden Nash you might be able to Google him, or if his books are not out of print you might find him in the libraree......

 

If you nip over to ABC Wednesday here there are bound to be other interpretations of D that will tickle your fancy, and while there say thanks to Roger and Denise for this grand meme.