Phillip and David welcome special guest, Kendra McGaha (of the I Trip Over Flat Surfaces podcast) to dive into the play within the play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Sure, you know it for its fairies, its star-crossed lovers (oops, wrong play), and its wonderful language, but did you also know it has a good claim on some great doggerel, too? The "r…

In this episode of The Doggerel and Pony Show, we welcome special guest Heather Tolleson to discuss a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay - The Witch-Wife! Short, eerie, and mysterious, the poem, picked by Heather for discussion, leads everyone into the wild world of Millay - a pioneer feminist, bohemian and social crusader. But, her reputation as a po…

Welcome back to the Doggerel and Pony Show! We've been off the air for a few weeks, but we're back stronger than ever! In this episode, Phillip and David explore the short, mysterious and wonderful poem by Eugene Field, The Duel (also known by its first line, The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat). Find out the significance of the poem, its author, an…

An epic(ally bad) poem of love and heroism, self-sacrifice, and purple prose! That is the conundrum that is The Highwayman. Phillip and David take on this classic piece of doggerel, well-known to every teenage student that has stood the test of time, no matter how trite and overblown it seems to modern ears. Why has it survived? What influences wen…

When you think of Geoffrey Chaucer, you think of the Canterbury Tales, of course. They were his major work, and, despite being in Middle English, we love them to this day. But, Chaucer was far from the staid, incomprehensible poet you associate with the sober tales of pilgrims tromping through plague-ravaged England of the late 1300s. He was funny!…

This piece of DEFINITE doggerel is one nearly everyone has heard of, and a few can even quote, but almost nobody knows the history of it and its influence on modern American society. Right off the bat, David and Phillip take a crack at this very amusing, maybe overly dramatic poem (wait until you hear the recording we uncovered...) and cover the ba…

Phillip and David FINALLY reach the end of the Mariner's journey - and boy, do they have some MAJOR disagreement on the meaning of it all! Take a listen, and tell us if you think either of them is right. You have heard of this poem - the epic tale of an old man and the sea, condemned to wander the Earth forever going on about his albatross. It is a…

Dang, this poem is LONG! Phillip and David bite off a major piece of the epic and chew loud and long on its meaning, meter, rhythm, and imagery. Your hosts, Phillip and David, real-life brothers, continue on their mission to break down the history of this work and dive deep into its background and impact. The Doggerel and Pony Show. We talk about p…

Phillip and David take a swim in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The brothers read and analyze the first two parts of the saga, discussing imagery, meter, rhyme, and well, just the overall awesomeness that the poet has created. Come along for the ride as they set sail on a grand adventure into the mind of the f…

You have heard of this poem - the epic tale of an old man and the sea, condemned to wander the Earth forever going on about his albatross. It is a staple of high school, and is considered to be beneath serious consideration, and fits the very definition of doggerel. But did you know that this thrilling work kicked off the Romantic movement and spaw…