For over a hundred years, William McGonagall (1830-1902) has been CLIPPER almost universally recognised as the worst poet in English. Utterly convinced of his genius, he remained untroubled by any worrisome self-doubt, despite the mockery of his audiences. This collection brings together some of his best-known works (The Tay Bridge Disaster, The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir), some lesser-known gems (Beecham's Pills, The Faithful Dog Fido), and some autobiographical writings that tell of his ill-fated trip to Balmoral, of his much-fêted performance as Macbeth (in which he was so popular he decided not to die), and why publicans threw peas at him.

William McGonagall was born in Edinburgh in 1830. His father was a poor hand-loom weaver, and his work took his family to Glasgow, then to Dundee. William attended school for eighteen months before the age of seven, and received no further formal education. Later, as a mill worker, he used to read books in the evening, taking great interest in Shakespeare's plays. In 1877, McGonagall suddenly discovered himself 'to be a poet'. Since then, thousands of people the world over have enjoyed the verse of Scotland's alternative national poet. This volume brings together the three famous collections – Poetic Gems, More Poetic Gems and Last Poetic Gems, and also includes an introduction by Chris Hunt, the webmaster of the McGonagall website www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk, indexes of poem titles and first lines, and features the first publication of McGonagall's only play, Jack o' the Cudgel, written in 1886 but not performed publicly until 2002.

"The novelist and poet Ben Lerner argues that our hatred of poetry is ultimately a sign of its nagging relevance"--