Customer Reviews

World's Worst Poet: Selections from "Poetic Gems"

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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.