AKA William Topaz McGonagall
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Location of death: Edinburgh, Scotland
Cause of death: unspecified
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Executive summary: The Tay Bridge Disaster
Reputed to be the worst poet in the English language. Still in print.
The final stanza to his most well known poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster (1879):
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.
A fictionalized depiction of the poet appears in The Great McGonagall (1974).
Wife: Jean King (m. 1846)
Daughter: Mary King
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