Tag: doggerel

Untitled by Anonymous as Reported by X.Y.

x.y.
Niagara Falls From Goat Island, 1857
Print by Currier & Ives. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Niagara Falls are a wonderful scene,
Regularly calculated to make the mind serene ;
With their mighty dash and tremendous spray,
They roll and they roll, repeatedly every day !”

**********************************************

These Falls have never been congealed completely,
In this, weak men are agreed, neatly!

Source: X. Y. “Poetry of Young America.” The Massachusetts Teacher and Journal of Home and School Education 10, no. 2 (1857): 89–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45023974.

The identity of X.Y. is unknown.

Judy’s Hootenanny by Bob Chambers

chambers
chambers

                 ♪          ♪

Come all you young people

     and listen to me,

Never smoke cigarettes or   ♪

     a corpse you will be,

For once it was smart, but  ♫

     now it’s forlorn,

And smoking will kill you

     as sure as you’re born!

♪          ♪

The cartoon was drawn by Bob Chambers, who worked for the Halifax Chronicle Herald. It is presumed the ditty was written by him also.

Read about Bob Chambers.

Judy LaMarsh Niagara Falls resident, who became the federal Minister of Health from 1963-1965.

Read about Judy LaMarsh.

Before Explorers and Pioneers by Betty Beam

explorers
Niagara Falls, 1874
 Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Before explorers and pioneers came,
Indians gave Niagara its name.
For, sound and sight displayed
Left each viewer dismayed—
Now power and beauty parent world fame.

Source: Laroque, Corey. Here’s What the Poets are Saying. Niagara Falls, Ont.: Niagara Falls Review, November 21, 2009

This limerick was entered into the So You Think You Can Rhyme (2009) Limerick Contest to find Niagara Falls’ Poet Laureate

Go to the Limericks page

Untitled by Capting Ralph Stackpole

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

 

‘Tis did—my braggin’ days is o’er,
I’ll brag of old SALT* now no more.
The look of pride which once I wore
Is gone, alas! my heart are tore ;
The proud, firm footstep, mine of yore
Are gone now, too, gone ; my eyes is sore,
And little scaldin’ tears does pour,
When I does think that old SALT’S roar,
Was made “considerable” lower,
Even at this very door.

*Salt River

Signed Capting Ralph Stackpole of Salt River.

Source: Table Rock Album and Sketches of the Falls and Scenery Adjacent. Buffalo: Steam Press of Thomas and Lathrops, copyright by Jewett, Thomas & Co.,1856c.1848

Untitled by Anonymous

table
The title page of the Table Rock Album

I came to see ;
I thought to write ;
I am but ——— dumb.

Source: Holley, George W., ed.  The Falls of Niagara.  Baltimore: A.C. Armstrong & Son, 1883

Originally from The Table Rock Albums. Click to see the Table of Contents on this site.