deepundergroundpoetry.com
For the Worst Poet
to William McGonagall, 1825 to 1902, popularly regarded as an extremely bad poet
You may have been too lost
in forms that other people use, sometimes,
trying to wear Lord Tennyson’s clothes,
to pluck a daffodil with Wordsworth’s hands,
but all your heart was somewhere in those lines.
I picture you walking to Balmoral
to ask Victoria, and thus Victorians,
to make you national poet.
How your legs must have hurt!
(In serving your thoughts and feelings.)
And how it must have hurt when you were told
that she wasn’t home, that no-one was in
to see you. I hope by talking to you now
I’ve evidenced that you were seen,
that some part of the house was there for you.
You may have been too lost
in forms that other people use, sometimes,
trying to wear Lord Tennyson’s clothes,
to pluck a daffodil with Wordsworth’s hands,
but all your heart was somewhere in those lines.
I picture you walking to Balmoral
to ask Victoria, and thus Victorians,
to make you national poet.
How your legs must have hurt!
(In serving your thoughts and feelings.)
And how it must have hurt when you were told
that she wasn’t home, that no-one was in
to see you. I hope by talking to you now
I’ve evidenced that you were seen,
that some part of the house was there for you.
Published 17th Apr 2022
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18th Apr 2022 00:54am
I know his feet didn’t scan, but in later days he might have been considered a modernist :)
18th Apr 2022 2:04am
That’s a very good point! People in his day apparently saw him as ironic in nature, especially when he’d read his poems to crowds, ignoring their jeers. Maybe he was what we’d now call a performance artist.
18th Apr 2022 4:21pm
What a moving tribute, Jack. I adore writes like this because they highlight compassion, which you have in spades.
