NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/arts/books/23710

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-02 | 1.8 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Barbara Hlavin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Celebrating McGonagall
Date: 3 Jan 1993 00:42:15 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 32
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NNTP-Posting-Host: milton.u.washington.edu

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Desiree Sy) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>>|> William McGonagall (1825-1902) was one of the
>>|> lesser lights of Victorian poetry -- indeed, some would say, among
>>|> the very dimmest lights -- a handloom weaver from Dundee who styled
>>|> himself a Poet and Tragedian.  Those who have been exposed to his
>>|> deathless verse can never quite forget it.
>
>Is this the man who wrote those series of (for lack of a better
>word) verses on the beautiful bridge on the silvery Tey?  If so,
>please *do* list any titles of his collected editions -- I'd love
>to get my hands on a set.  This is some of the best bad poetry
>I've ever heard (to give you some idea of how memorable his stuff
>is, I last heard the beautiful bridge on the silvery Tey stuff
>when I was 15).


Can one of you fans explain to me what's so appealing about this stuff?

I can see that it's worth a chuckle in passing, but not investing in
volumes of it for your library, reading it again and again, and
celebrating it annually.

Would I be off the mark in assuming that you take pleasure in
his inanity, as you might that of a dotty uncle?

And do you have to have been there when he was smoking his cigar?


--Barbara