Doggerel Quotes

“Not altogether a fool," said G., "but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool."

"True," said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum, "although I have been guilty of certain doggerel myself.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, The Purloined Letter

“It was an odd bit of doggerel. First the flame and then the flood, in the end it's Blackthorn blood.”
― Cassandra Clare, Lady Midnight

“A critic can call any poem 'doggerel.' That is no more than a slur. 'Doggerel' or 'maudlin' or 'sappy' or 'sentimental' is in the ear of the listener. By the by, 'sentimental' is okay as it is defined as 'marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism.' It is 'sentimentality' that is to be avoided, like the fiddleback spider, being as it is 'the quality or state of being sentimental to excess or in affectation.' Again we are faced with a judgement call and must keep a sharp eye on our outpourings to insure they are not overly gooey.

The intellectual elite probably believe that most of the lyrics songwriters create are 'doggerel' of one kind or another--that is to say 'trivial"......the young songwriter has now been warned about the implacable nature of the enemy. Under a rather large umbrella, preferred twentieth-century taste in art of all kinds has been characterized by a kind of detachment, or sangfroid. It is simply not chic to be carried away in one's emotional reaction to a subject. All serious communication or complaint must be carefully wrapped in a protective coating of irony and/or satire.”
― Jimmy Webb, Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting

“The trouble with poetry is it's often written to the sound of a drum only the poet may hear; nonetheless, blessed are those poets who always manage to find unshakeable pleasure in their own works.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“SF's NO GOOD!
They bellow 'til we're deaf
But =this= is good
Well, then, it's not SF!”
― Kingsley Amis

“I once began to ask around what constitutes a good poem. It felt petty, in a sense. A boy would need no help in deciding which girls he thinks are pretty.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“By(e) pen, I've tried my hand at poetry; only to see how boring it is to me. That is, unless I get a chance to destroy each and every piece while doing it as I please.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“You've delivered your message. I have no big of doggerel to send back- my own fault for having a seneschal who cannot double as my Court Poet- but I will be sure to crumple up some paper and drop it into the water when I do.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King