World's Worst Poet: Selections from "Poetic Gems" [Paperback]

William McGonagall (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Templegate Pub (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087243088X
• ISBN-13: 978-0872430884
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,235,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars O sublime incompetence! Celestial idiocy!, January 14, 2001

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World's Worst Poet: Selections from "Poetic Gems" (Paperback)

As with the exquisite cinematic oeuvre of Edward D. Wood Jr., the poetic works of the Victorian Scottish poet William McGonagall rate one star for quality, five for entertainment value. McGonagall is a singularly sympathetic and touching figure: this brave, honest, God-fearing man suffered poverty, hardship and ridicule, sacrificing everything for his poetry, which was absolutely...abominable. A quotation from one of his poems--about the disastrous collapse of a railway bridge--will suffice to give the flavor of his work: Beautiful railway bridge over the silv'ry Tay!/I must now conclude my lay/By stating here fearlessly without the least dismay/That your girders would not have given way,/At least many sensible men do say,/If they had been reinforced with buttresses,/At least many sensible men confesses,/For the stronger we our houses do build,/The less chance we have of being killed. The pastor of McGonagall's church, reading McGonagall's tribute to him, said, "Shakespeare never wrote anything like this." Indeed not, and English poetry would be much the lesser if it had no room for gallant eccentrics like McGonagall.