Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Andy Jackson
  • >
  • The Académie Française Considers a Word for ‘Dogging’
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Académie Française Considers a Word for ‘Dogging’

Andy Jackson

Chiennage, a literal response, is cast aside,
its laziness the thin end of the wedge, reminder
that the Anglophones are twenty miles across
the ruffled sleeve of water, typing into blogues

and laughing in their pockets at le yé-yé, snide
and covetous and lacking in élan. They ponder
whether poetry would work, consider coarse
equivalents – attroupement de rut, though stags

are cheapened by comparison with sleazy
rosbifs blundering priapically in leisurewear.
Dehorgie is a possibility, a cut-and-shut creation
with a pleasing wit. Etranger-plonger – smirks

from younger duffers round the room – easy
on the ear but too contrived. Onomatopoeia
puts its hand up after momentary hesitation,
volunteers ouambam. Chairman says it doesn’t work

for him, and dingue-dongue, shique-shaque, fouhaha
make shagging in a layby sound okay.
Someone mentions gender – masculin ou feminin? –
and that’s enough to force adjournment for the day.


Andy Jackson

published in Rising (London) and on the Lighten Up Online website

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Best Scottish Poems 2011 French irony language nationalism sexuality taboo

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2011. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editor in 2011 was Roddy Lumsden.

Editor’s comment:

This poem, which I found in the long-running and unconventional London little magazine Rising, manages to be both funny and clever. And a bit naughty too. It plays on the French authorities’ desire for a purer French without adopted words. The loose metre and rhyme scheme make it a sort of sonnet-and-a-half.

Author’s note:

First, I should say that this poem has nothing to do with dogging. It’s an admittedly light piece about the ludicrous idea of having a Committee regulate a national vocabulary. I don’t feel our language can be controlled by convention and absolute definition – it will change over time, and poetry should reflect that. I picked ‘dogging’ as a word for the Académie Française to look into as it seemed a uniquely British invention (though I haven’t done any research to confirm this). Despite satirising the attempted formalization of language, the poem itself is quite formal. The French words I invented would never get past the real Académie Française, but I doubt that this poem will appear on their radar, so I should be okay. The poem first appeared in Tim Wells’ sharp and sassy Rising magazine (the Sniffin’ Glue of poetry), and also on Martin Parker’s Lighten Up Online website. Thanks to both for publishing it.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2011

edited by Roddy Lumsden
Find out more

Andy Jacksonb.1965

Poet Andy Jackson has published several collections of his own poetry and edited a handful of anthologies. In his day job he is Learning & Teaching Librarian at the University of Dundee.
More about Andy Jackson

Online Shop

Browse our range of poetry books, cards and gifts in our online shop.
Shop now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library