The Patron Saint Of Misbegotten Verse

William McGonagall may be the worst famous poet in the English language, a testament in part to the man’s powers of self-promotion and the caprices of literary history.  This poem about a Scottish railway crash is an example of his work:

So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

Read more:  Lapham’s Quarterly