An old Scottish term for bad, clunky poetry — the kind of rhyming verse that clangs along without elegance, forcing rhymes that don't quite work and landing on rhythms that trip over themselves. 'Crambo' was a historical word game based on finding rhymes, and 'clink' suggests the metallic, mechanical sound of forced rhymes knocking together. It's a delightfully specific insult for verse that tries hard but fails. Poets and critics with a classical bent might still deploy it with affection.
He called his rival's ode nothing but crambo-clink, fit for a schoolroom notice board and nothing more.
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(Scotland, archaic) Bad poetry; doggerel.
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