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Famously Bad Poet Fetches Big Bucks at Auction

Posted May 17, 08 8:05 AM CDT in Arts & Living    Editor's Choice

(Newser) – William McGonagall had a tough time after deciding poetry was his calling, being roundly insulted by critics and even pelted with rotten fruit. But the 19th-century Scotsman has been remembered long after his peers—as the worst poet ever to mangle the English language. His works commanded a price higher than a J.K Rowling first edition at an auction yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

McGonagall has become a celebrated figure over the years, admired for stubbornly clinging to his art, despite a lack of any evident talent for it. "Despite his ability to massacre poetic metaphor, his taste for banality, a weak vocabulary and his tortuous rhymes, his popularity has outlived many of his then-respected contemporaries," a literary expert notes.

Source Wall Street Journal

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Part of a collection of works, written and published by William McGonagall, the 19th century Scots poet renowned for his lack of poetic ability.   (AP Photo)
Poetry carved into the footpath forms the "McGonagall Walk" on the bank to the river Tay in Dundee, eastern Scotland, on June 22, 2007.   (AP Photo/ Martin Cleaver)
Dundee, adopted home of poet William McGonagall, has chosen to honor the cartoon character Desperate Dan with a statue, but not McGonagall.   (AP Photo/ Martin Cleaver)
A page of manuscript, part of a collection of works, written and published by William McGonagall, the man internationally celebrated as the worst poet ever to assault the English language.   (AP Photo)
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