Today, December 28, is the anniversary of the Tay Bridge Disaster. The tragedy is now remembered in connection with the disaster of the poem it inspired. William McGonagall (whose family name, at least, is familar to readers of the Harry Potter books, because his grave is in the cemetery near the coffee shop where the first […]
Tag: McGonagall
Celebrating William Topaz McGonagall, for World Poetry Day
Steve Farrar celebrates the historically bad poetry of William Topaz McGonagall, for World Poetry Day: … Here was a man unafraid to rhyme ‘poet’ and ‘know it’ without the least hint of irony, and of course he fearlessly rejected the confines of conventional scansion. For instance, he lovingly crafted the following couplet about Lochleven Castle: ‘And […]
Horrors: ‘Art’ in Artificial (Intelligence) Poetry
William Topaz McGonagall who died in 1902, is widely regarded as the writer of the worst poetry in the English language. As an example, see this video featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) interpreting the poem ‘Stirling Castle’. McGonagall has now become one of the very few famous poets to have a computer programme […]
The Ig Nobel show at Imperial College [video]
Here’s video of the Ig Nobel show we did at Imperial College London on March 9, 2012. (Imperial College’s web site has a better quality video.). This year’s show featured Mason Porter, John Hoyland and Stevyn Colgan and Ig Nobel Prize winner Mirjam Tuk—with a special appearance by Professor Andrew George, who recited wretched poetry by […]