Join us on Sunday morning, March 20 for a historic group reading — on a train crossing the Tay Bridge, perhaps the first time this has ever been accomplished — of William Topaz McGonagall’s most famous bad poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster, Here are the poem’s stirring opening lines: “Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry […]
Tag: poem
STV preview of McGonagall poem modern debut
The Scottish TV network STV produced a preview of the historic (and completely unimportant) event that will happen on Saturday evening, March 19 at the University of Dundee: The modern debut of poems by the wretched poet William Topaz McGonagall — poems that are not published in any book and that have not been performed […]
To a louse on a lady
This week’s Classic Louse Poem is Robert Burn’s “To A Louse. On seeing one on a lady’s bonnet at church.” It begins: Ha! Whare ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie? Your impudence protects you sairly, I canna say but ye strut rarely Owre gauze and lace, Tho’ faith! I fear ye dine but sparely On sic […]
Horton Sees a Pluto
Meg Muckenhoupt wrote a poem about Pluto: Horton Sees a Pluto [AIR 15:5] On a hot night in August, while strolling in Prague, Horton the elephant peered through the fog. With his portable telescope tied on a string He looked at the heavens and spotted… a thing! So Horton stopped walking and stared at the spot. […]
Poem for the Dundee Ig Nobel show
In tribute of a sort to tonight’s Ig Nobel show at the University of Dundee, not far from the Tay Bridge, here are the concluding lines of William McGonagall’s mortal poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster“: Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay, I must now conclude my lay By telling the world fearlessly without the […]
Build-your-own snowflake
In snowy climes, people passively watch snowflakes fall. But in balmy Pasadena, California, Caltech professor Kenneth Libbrecht and his friends build their own snowflakes. Click on the image to see one of their many movies showing one growing. Here’s our quasi-poetical tribute to them: Twinkle, twinkle, little flake, Bestest thing that I can make. Most […]