A loose, irregularly styled verse, done especially for comedic effect.

For an excellent example, see Monty Python‘s The Meaning of Life, The Middle of the Film - Find the Fish.

"...A Fish, a fish, a fish, Ooh!
And it went wherever I did go…."

Lovely word ! Here’s what the Online Etymology Dictionary has to say about its origins

doggerel - 1277 (as a surname, 1249), the root word probably from dog, applied to bad poetry perhaps with a suggestion of puppyish clumsiness, or being only fit for dogs.

Henri

Here’s a bit of doggerel that I wrote for a "bad poetry" contest in college (with apologies to H.W. Longfellow).

"I threw a dart into the air,
it fell to earth not anywhere,
it fell back neither soon nor after,
because it got stuck in a rafter."

Hee! Jack, that’s good. I mean, bad. It sucks most excellently.

I’d like to offer this ode as another example:

A soft vision, clarity
arrives on my pillow at dawn
Beseeching charity
for now the night is done

Pattern of starburst, pink in the light
crosses before my line of sight
A samisen or lute, played with a plectrum
could not sing the song of my cat’s rectum

;D ;D

[quote author=KatyBr link=board=wordsuggest;num=1052997230;start=0#4 date=05/19/03 at 15:06:30]Uh, Stickler, would that be sung as scat, perchance?

Tacitly might be better.

DJ

Katy, you’re funny! In fact, you crack me up :D

My inspiration for it was an illustration from Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions.

Ella could make anything sound good.

DJ

Written for a co-worker (who is looking rather ragged this morning) in limerick form…

Your day may not be all rip-roaring
In fact, it may be rather boring
But the coffee machine
Provides lots of caffeine
So get some, or soon you’ll be snoring.

It’s not quite a limerick, I think - the meter is wrong. Nonethless,  ;D

~Silver

not quite a limerick

Perceptive as ever, Silver.

A limerick writer named Jack
Was somewhat taken aback
When Silver Han toasted
The poem he posted
But it wasn’t, in fact, an attack.

It’s just that its meter was more like a yard. Even Edward Lear used to do that all the time.  ;D

- PW
who loves doggerel