Looking for the world's worst poet, McGonagall, and the Scottish Tay bridge disaster

 

McGonagall's family was from Ireland, from County Donegal, as their name might tell you, but settled in the north of Scotland in Dundee. McGonagall one day received a call from a voice telling him to write poetry. His first poem was to praise a minister of religion.

He had grasped the concept of rhyme, but not of syllable counting, of intonation, so his poetry created an unintended humorous effect. He tried to make a living from selling his printed poems and performing them. 

He performed as Macbeth in the Shakespeare play, the starring role. However, in the last act, where Macbeth is supposed to die, McGonagall refused to die.

He once performed a poem against drinking in a pub. He was surprised when the annoyed publican threw peas at him.

He wrote a poem about the local wonder of construction, the Tay Bridge. When the bridge collapsed with a train on it, killing numerous passengers, he wrote another poem, which was dreadful, but got widespread publicity. 

Go to Dundee where he and his family lived in their early years. He had a wife and seven children.

He wrote a poem about the grand Tay Bridge.

The bridge after the disaster.

The poet McGonagall.

He wrote another poem to Queen Victoria.  Despite the fact that her lackey's lukewarm response showed she was not amused, treated the fact that he got a reply as an endorsement.

The poet honoured.

• But I may say Dame Fortune has been very kind to me by endowing me with the genius of poetry. I remember how I felt when I received the spirit of poetry. It was in the year of 1877.
  • "The Autobiography of Sir William Topaz McGonagall", published in the Weekly News
    • McGonagall's "knighthood" was an honorary one conferred on him by King Theebaw of the Andaman Islands: "Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah".

• I was seized with a strong desire to write poetry, so strong, in fact, that in imagination I thought I heard a voice crying in my ears –

  "Write! Write"

  I wondered what could be the matter with me, and I began to walk backwards and forwards in a great fit of excitement, saying to myself– "I know nothing about poetry."

  • "The Autobiography of Sir William Topaz McGonagall".

You can see a plaque on a site where he lived in Edinburgh. A bench where he was buried in a pauper's grave has been photographed and can be seen on the website although unfortunately the bench and its plaque have gone.

Tay bridge disaster column in Dundee Museum of Transport, Dundee, Scotland. Photo by John White.

British comedian Spike Milligan featured McGonagall many times.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20119/william-topaz-mcgonagall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster

The Tay Bridge Disaster poem in full:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tay_Bridge_Disaster 

Tay Bridge Disaster Virtual Cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

 

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts.