Fans Honor ‘World’s Worst Poet’
by Ben McConville
Edinburgh, Scotland (AP) — The land that gave the world Robert Burns also has the dubious honor of producing the “world’s worst poet.” Now fans of the hapless William McGonagall are campaigning to put him in the pantheon of Scottish literary greats.
The late 19th century poet’s work is so bad he carried an umbrella with him at all times as protection from the barrage of rotten tomatoes he faced wherever he recited.
His most famous work, a poem initially titled “The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay,” drew derision from crowds when it required a hasty rewrite after the structure collapsed in 1879.
It became “The Tay Bridge Disaster” with the immortal opening stanza: “Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!/Alas! I am very sorry to say/That ninety lives have been taken away/On the last Sabbath day of 1879/Which will be remember’d for a very long time.” Continue reading “The Dubious Fame of William McGonagall”
