Writer's Corner - Doggerel

November NEWZLETTER Contest:
THAT DOGGONE DOGGEREL!

You all know the poem:

Lizzie Borden took and axe
Gave her mother 40 whacks,
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41.

The contest was to rewrite this ditty, using the same meter and cadence. The subject matter should relate somehow to the case, but is not limited to the actual crime itself.

Entries were received by November 28th and winners were determined by a committee of three Borden buffs. All entries are now published in the Writer's Corner of the Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library—so in a sense, everyone who entered WON!

1.Janet Monaghan, New York First Place

Lizzie, you've created doubt
We cannot seem to figure out.
At heaven's gate I want to know
Is Lizzie here? Or down below?

2. Susan Magliaro, California Second Place

Lizzie Borden, that's her name
chopping folks her claim to fame,
now she has her daddy's cash
and daddy has a great big gash.

3. Diana Griffiths, Canada Third Place

Lizzie Borden, did she kill?
(Brown thinks it was crazy Bill.)
No one told; so none can say
What transpired that summer’s day.
‘Maggie, quickly, run around --
Doctor Bowen must be found.
Looks like father is no more!
I’ll just stand here by the door.’
Lizzie’s eyes were wide and blue
As she told her story true.
‘I was in the barn’, she said,
‘When they killed my parents dead.’
Then the story gets all jumbly.
Maybe folks at trial were mumbly?
So we ponder .. even now …
Did she do it? If so, how?

4. Jimmy S. Windeskog, Sweden

History has judged our friend
Her life began after its end
Her spell so strong for everyone
So no one asks what Bridget done.

5. A. Anderson-Bosworth — New Jersey

Her mother went to make the bed
an axe did wield upon her head
then father turned and saw the pout
as Lizzie hacked his brains out

6. Laura Sargent, Massachusetts

Here's a story that'll make you quiver
it's about a girl from fall river
did she or didn't she, we do not know
but at her trial she put on a heck of a show!

7. Susan Magliaro, California

Emma Borden had a fight
with her sister late one night,
she said that Lizzie was a louse
and moved on out of their fine house.

8. Susan Magliaro, California

Lizzie Borden burned her dress
said it was a nasty mess
she burned it in the broad daylight
and Alice said it wasn't right.

9. Kathleen Carbone, Massachusetts

Lizzie Borden had to pee
Her corset was too tight you see
And she'd been drinking beer as well
So now she had to go like hell
But Mrs Churchill got there first
With Lizzie's bladder's bout to burst
She knocked politely at the door
And knew she wouldn't last much more
"Addie dear" she began to say
"You helped me so that awful day
"I thank you still for your kind thought
"But won't you s**t or get off the pot"