William Topaz McGonagall
1825 - 1902
William McGonagall was a Scottish poet and public performer. He gained notoriety as an exceptionally poor poet who exhibited no recognition of or concern for his peers' opinions of his work. McGonagall wrote about 200 poems, including "The Tay Bridge Disaster" and "The Famous Tay Whale", which are widely regarded as some of the worst in English literature. Groups throughout Scotland engaged him to give recitations from his work, and contemporary descriptions of these performances indicate that many listeners appreciated McGonagall's apparent skill as a comic music hall character. Collections of his verse remain popular, with several volumes available today.Poems
- Women's Suffrage
- The Tay Bridge Disaster
- A New Temperance Poem, in Memory of My Departed Parents
- A Christmas Carol
- The Burning of the People's Variety Theatre, Aberdeen
- The Black Watch Memorial
- A Descriptive Poem on the Silvery Tay
- The Hero of Rorke's Drift
- A Soldier's Reprieve
- An Excursion Steamer Sunk in the Tay
- The Battle of El-Teb
- Grace Darling or "The Wreck of the Forfarshire"