doggerel verse
- noun
- /ˈdɔɡərəl vɜrs/
- Literature
:
verso de doggerel
- During the open mic night, she captivated the audience with her witty doggerel verse about coffee and chaos.
Examples
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The colonel then tips off (at patter-song speed) two hilarious doggerel verses listing thirty-eight historical figures, including a few fictional and general characters.
Academic text (1995) -
London's Punch responded with a barrage of satirical articles, doggerel verse, and political cartoons.
Academic text (1997) -
On May 18, 1861, Punch published a quite accurate account of the issue in doggerel verse, beginning: PREFORMATTED TABLE
Academic text (1995) -
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The doggerel verse written by a Queens bus driver in a student's autograph book thirty-eight years ago helps end this essay.
Academic text (1993) -
The poet's latest collection features humorous doggerel verse that pokes fun at everyday life.
-
Many of the nursery rhymes we learn as children are actually examples of doggerel verse, filled with playful rhythm and silly themes.
Synonyms
2
9.9
A short, badly written poem that tries to be funny and is often silly or rude
How Literary
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'doggerel' (comic, trivial verse) with 'verse' (poetry): it denotes a type of poetry that is trivial or comic. This is a simple modifier+head-noun composition following common cross-linguistic patterns, so a learner who knows both constituents will understand the MWE.
Etymology
The phrase doggerel verse may come from people comparing poor poems to dogs: the word doggerel likely comes from dog, suggesting something rough, noisy, and not worth much. So, doggerel verse now means short, often funny or badly made lines that are 'not serious' poetry.