Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.From Dictionary.com: doggerel
1. a. comic verse, usually irregular in measure
b. ( as modifier ): a doggerel rhythm
2. nonsense; drivel
From the Online Etymology Dictionary: doggerel
late 14c. (adj.); 1630s (n.), probably from dog + pejorative suffix -rel and applied to bad poetry perhaps with a suggestion of puppyish clumsiness, or being fit only for dogs. Attested as a surname from mid-13c., but the sense is not evident.
Basically, for us novelists, the poems and songs we write for our books are doggerel. Don’t be offended that the definition of doggerel calls our stunning words “bad poetry.” It’s just that, for the most part, we aren’t writing poems that will stagger the literary world. We’re writing poems to add to our stories. And sometimes doggerel is done very well.
Here is one you may recognize:
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates—
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
Pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when you’ve finished if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So, carefully! carefully with the plates!
I had a lot of fun writing doggerel for my Blood of Kings trilogy. Here are a few of my favorites.
A song Achan sings to distract himself from the lure of Darkness:
“Hail the piper, fiddle, fife,
The night is young and full of life.
The Corner teems with ale and song.
And we shall dance the whole night long.”
“Hear the pretty maiden sing,
Hair and ribbons all flowing.
She can take my heart away,
By her side I long to stay.”
And here is the song Achan learns in Berland, the one that Yumikak sang to him. I, pathetically, put this one to music. Click here to listen. Warning! It’s not very good.
