William McGonagall
#86,067
Most Influential Person Across History
British weaver, actor, poet
William McGonagall's AcademicInfluence.com Rankings
Download Badge
Literature
Why Is William McGonagall Influential?
(Suggest an Edit or Addition)According to Wikipedia, William Topaz McGonagall was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. He wrote about 200 poems, including "The Tay Bridge Disaster" and "The Famous Tay Whale", which are widely regarded as some of the worst in English literature. Groups throughout Scotland engaged him to make recitationss from his work, and contemporary descriptions of these performances indicate that many listeners were appreciating McGonagall's skill as a comic music hall character. Collections of his verse remain popular, with several volumes available today.
