1. William McGonagall was a Scottish poet and public performer.
23 Facts About William McGonagall
1. 2.
William McGonagall gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work.
3.
William 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.
4.
William McGonagall has been lampooned as the worst poet in British history.
5.
William McGonagall's work is in a long tradition of narrative ballads and verse written and published about great events and tragedies, and widely circulated among the local population as handbills.
6.
William McGonagall's Irish surname is a variation on Mag Congail, a popular name in County Donegal.
7.
Biographer Norman Watson suggests that William McGonagall may have falsified his place of birth, as a native-born Scotsman would be better treated under the Poor Law of 1845 than one born in Ireland.
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Queen Victoria 8.
The William McGonagall family moved several times in search of work, possibly spending time in Glasgow and on South Ronaldsay before settling in Dundee around 1840.
9.
Whilst working at the loom, William McGonagall would entertain his shopmates with recitations from Shakespeare.
10.
The turning point in William McGonagall's life came in June 1877.
11.
William McGonagall wrote his first poem, "An Address to the Rev George Gilfillan", displaying the hallmarks that would characterise his work.
12.
William McGonagall realised if he were to succeed as a poet, he required a patron and wrote to Queen Victoria.
13.
William McGonagall received a letter of rejection, written by a royal functionary, thanking him for his interest.
14.
William McGonagall met with the ire of the publicans, on one occasion being pelted with peas for reciting a poem about the evils of "strong drink".
15.
William McGonagall constantly struggled financially and earned money by selling his poems in the streets, or reciting them in halls, theatres and public houses.
16.
William McGonagall found lucrative work performing his poetry at a local circus.
17.
William McGonagall read his poems while the crowd was permitted to pelt him with eggs, flour, herrings, potatoes and stale bread.
18.
William McGonagall seemed happy with this arrangement, but the events became so raucous that the city magistrates were forced to put a ban on them.
19.
William McGonagall was outraged and wrote a poem in response entitled "Lines in Protest to the Dundee Magistrates":.
20.
William McGonagall died penniless in 1902, above what is The Captain's Bar in Edinburgh's South College Street and was buried in an unmarked grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.
21.
William McGonagall later entered common parlance as shorthand for an exceptionally poor writer in both poetry and prose.
22.
William McGonagall is buried in an unmarked grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh.
23.
William McGonagall's poems were published by his friends, in a series of books bearing variations on the title Poetic Gems.