Publisher's Synopsis
Born in Edinburgh in 1825 or 1830, William McGonagall was apprenticed as a weaver in Dundee. It was not until 1877 that, as he put it, ÔÇÿI discovered myself to be a poetÔÇÖ. His most famous work is undoubtedly ÔÇÿThe Tay Bridge DisasterÔÇÖ, but he wrote on many other subjects as well, including Queen VictoriaÔÇÖs Jubilee, various British military victories and the delights of various parts of Scotland. Now a cult figure and ScotlandÔÇÖs alternative national poet, McGonagallÔÇÖs work is so bad that it verges on genius. As an admiring subject of one of his poems put it, ÔÇÿShakespeare never wrote anything like this.ÔÇÖ
