Topaz McGonagall even got the facts incorrect in his poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster. The actual number of deaths caused by the tragedy was 75, not 90, as stated in his poem. [1]
The Tay Bridge Disaster is a poem written by William ‘Topaz’ McGonagall, a Scottish poet renowned for his notoriously bad poetry. The poem describes the collapse of the Tay Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, which occurred on the stormy night of 28 December 1879. The disaster resulted in the death of 75 people as a passenger train plunged into the River Tay when a section of the bridge collapsed.
Composed in 1880, McGonagall’s poem describes the stormy night, the collapsing bridge, and the tragic consequences in a rather straightforward and awkward manner. His poem is infamous for its lack of poetic grace, awkward metre, unintentionally humorous content, and obliviousness to the gravity of the tragedy, which makes it a source of amusement rather than a poignant reflection on the disaster. I have written about the poem here.
‘Topaz’ McGonagall was of Irish descent and was born in 1825. He wrote about 200 poems and was utterly deaf to any criticisms of his work. Wishing to have Queen Victoria as his sponsor, he walked to Balmoral in the hopes of persuading her in person, after his letter had failed to do the trick. He was turned away from the door.
McGonagall’s verses have become a prime example of unintentional comedy in literature. The Tay Bridge Disaster stands as a quirky and infamous piece in the history of literature, offering a unique perspective on the challenges of poetic expression and the importance of craftsmanship in the art of verse.
Today there is a McGonagall Appreciation Society celebrating his awfulness (evidently, when they hold dinners, they go through the menu backward, thus starting with coffee and dessert), and there’s a McGonagall Walk near the Tay Bridge. He was a great influence on Spike Milligan and Billy Connolly, his name was taken up by J.K. Rowling for one of her characters, there have been musicals, plays and movies that reference him, and streets and squares have been named after him.
You can listen to the poem here:
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