Doggerel Doggerel Doggerel is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is derived from the Middle English "dogerel", probably a derivative of "dog". In English it has been used as an adjective since the 14th century and a noun since at least 1630. Appearing since ancient times in the literatures of many cultures, it is characteristic of nursery rhymes and children's song. The Scottish poet William McGonagall (1825-1902) has become famous for his
England in the Late Middle Ages Middle Ages the economy had begun to recover and considerable improvements were being made in metalworking and shipbuilding that would shape the early modern economy. Technology and science in England advanced considerably during the Middle Ages, driven in part by the Greek and Islamic thinking that reached England from the twelfth century. Many advances were made in scientific ideas, including the introduction of Arabic numerals and a sequence of improvements in the units used for measuring time. Clocks were first built in England in the late thirteenth century, and the first mechanical clocks were being installed in cathedrals and abbeys