What is William McGonagall?
'''William McGonagall''' (born [[Edinburgh]], March 1825 &ndash; died [[Edinburgh]], 29 September 1902) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[poet]]. He thought he was good at writing poetry, but his poetry was often considered to be the worst poetry in the [[English language]]. He became famous because he was such a bad poet. == Life and poetry == William McGonagall was born in [[Edinburgh]], Scotland. His family were originally [[Ireland|Irish]]. McGonagall worked as a [[Weaving|weaver]] in [[Dundee (Scotland)|Dundee]]. In 1877, when he was probably 52 years old, he suddenly found that he liked writing poetry. He wrote a poem about a local [[vicar]] and sent it to the Dundee Weekly News. The editor thought it was a joke, and he published it as a jokey poem. McGonagall continued to write poetry. He read his poems in public and lots of people came to hear him. However, his audience had really come to laugh at him and throw rotten vegetables at him. Mc Gonagall's poems have stupid [[rhyme]]s, the words he uses are often silly and he mixes his [[imagery]] in clumsy ways. One of his most famous poems is about the Tay Bridge Disaster. It tells of a real event in 1879 when the [[bridge]] over the river [[Tay]] in Scotland collapsed and a train that was going over the bridge crashed, killing many people. Part of McGonagall's poem goes: :'' Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!'' :'' Alas! I am very sorry to say'' :'' That ninety lives have been taken away'' :'' On the last Sabbath day of 1879,'' :'' Which will be remember'd for a very long time.'' McGonagall did not seem to realise that people thought his poems were bad. He became disappointed that the town of Dundee did not recognize him as a great poet, so he went to [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]] and then to [[Edinburgh]]. He continued to write poetry. He travelled to [[London]] because he had been given an invitation to meet the famous [[actor]] Sir [[Henry Irvine]]. However, someone had been playing a trick on him: the invitation was not a real on