Every year I honor December 28 because a terrible disaster on this day — the collapse of the Tay Bridge in Scotland in 1879 — led to a terrible disaster of an entirely different sort. I am speaking, of course, of the infamous poem by William McGonagall.<\/p>\n
The Tay Bridge Disaster<\/i> is to 19th century poetry what The Room<\/i> is to modern cinema. McGonagall’s commemorative poem is so jaw droppingly inept that it is nearly transcendent.<\/p>\n
Here is a link<\/a> to the poem in its entirety. If you would like just a taste, I quote below the last few lines of this immortal misfire, which admittedly concludes with some very sensible advice:<\/p>\n Every year I honor December 28 because a terrible disaster on this day — the collapse of the Tay Bridge in Scotland in 1879 — led to a terrible disaster of an entirely different sort. I am speaking, of course, of the infamous poem by William McGonagall. The Tay Bridge Disaster is to 19th century … Continue reading “Worst poem ever”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19489,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19487\/revisions\/19489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI must now conclude my lay
\nBy telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
\nThat your central girders would not have given way,
\nAt least many sensible men do say,
\nHad they been supported on each side with buttresses,
\nAt least many sensible men confesses,
\nFor the stronger we our houses do build,
\nThe less chance we have of being killed.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"