ThursdayNext : www.jasperfforde.com
A discussion of all things Thursday !
McGonagall
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: November 06, 2002 02:35AM
<HTML>It seems fairly obvious that the 'help for My Fforde' thread will become hopelessly boojummed with McGonagall, so I reckon any mentions (favourite lines, links, rivals etc) of the great man should be placed in their own thread. To wit - here.
Anybody who is ignorant of William Topaz McGonangall and his peculiar genius are advised to hotfoot it down to
[www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk]
to get a flavour of his talent.
In brief, however, McGonangall was a 'poet and tragedarian' - his own words - who decided for reasons best known to himself to tkae up poetry. In fact, in his biography, he wrote "I was suddenly seized to write poetry. 'But I know nothing of poetry!', I thought." Obviously with these qulifications he was always destined to become one of the best known of Scotland's poets.
McGonagall has become more popular in recent years through a series of people recomending him to all and sundry, including Billy Connelly (who contributes the preface to 'Poetic Gems') and Spike Milligan. His most famous works concern the Bridge over the Tay, whaich inspired three poems charting it's construction, opening and destruction in a fierce gale.
McGonangall's wider talent was mostly to refuse to allow anything traditionally associated with poetry (metre, metaphor, imagery, rythm, semblance of sense) to interfere with the quest for a rhyme. Apparently the poems were all written entirely straight-faced, although anybody who cna't stand pretentious Victorian poetry designed for public consumption may suspect more than a little satire; and will probably read in hysterics.
Anyway, to give a flavour of the true extent of his genius, I'll leave you with my favourite two lines, the opening couplet from his poem on the 'Death of Lord and Lady Dalhousie':
"Lord and Lady Dalhousie are dead, and buried at last,
Which causes many people to feel a little downcast"</HTML>
Anybody who is ignorant of William Topaz McGonangall and his peculiar genius are advised to hotfoot it down to
[www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk]
to get a flavour of his talent.
In brief, however, McGonangall was a 'poet and tragedarian' - his own words - who decided for reasons best known to himself to tkae up poetry. In fact, in his biography, he wrote "I was suddenly seized to write poetry. 'But I know nothing of poetry!', I thought." Obviously with these qulifications he was always destined to become one of the best known of Scotland's poets.
McGonagall has become more popular in recent years through a series of people recomending him to all and sundry, including Billy Connelly (who contributes the preface to 'Poetic Gems') and Spike Milligan. His most famous works concern the Bridge over the Tay, whaich inspired three poems charting it's construction, opening and destruction in a fierce gale.
McGonangall's wider talent was mostly to refuse to allow anything traditionally associated with poetry (metre, metaphor, imagery, rythm, semblance of sense) to interfere with the quest for a rhyme. Apparently the poems were all written entirely straight-faced, although anybody who cna't stand pretentious Victorian poetry designed for public consumption may suspect more than a little satire; and will probably read in hysterics.
Anyway, to give a flavour of the true extent of his genius, I'll leave you with my favourite two lines, the opening couplet from his poem on the 'Death of Lord and Lady Dalhousie':
"Lord and Lady Dalhousie are dead, and buried at last,
Which causes many people to feel a little downcast"</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: November 06, 2002 02:50PM
<HTML>An Ode to Miss Thursday Next, on the regrettable Occasion of her Disappearance
Oh, beautiful and intelligent detective Miss Thursday Next
Who has got the Goliath Corporation very vexed
Has, I am very sorry to say
Had to go a very long way away
Because otherwise she would have been killed
Which situation would have left none of us particularly thrilled.
Her husband the gallant and noble Mr. Park-Laine
Has been wiped out of existence, and people think her to be insane
If she insists she is his wife
Because nobody can remember his life.
Oh, will she return and give us of more pleasure lots?
We shall have to wait for The Well of Lost Plots.</HTML>
Oh, beautiful and intelligent detective Miss Thursday Next
Who has got the Goliath Corporation very vexed
Has, I am very sorry to say
Had to go a very long way away
Because otherwise she would have been killed
Which situation would have left none of us particularly thrilled.
Her husband the gallant and noble Mr. Park-Laine
Has been wiped out of existence, and people think her to be insane
If she insists she is his wife
Because nobody can remember his life.
Oh, will she return and give us of more pleasure lots?
We shall have to wait for The Well of Lost Plots.</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: ScarletBea (---.be.jnj.com)
Date: November 06, 2002 03:34PM
<HTML>LOLOLOLOL</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: November 06, 2002 06:16PM
<HTML>Sorry Jon, but it's nowhere bad enough for the master! It even makes sense, for God's sake. What it really needs is a load of irrelevant facts about Miss Next...</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: November 06, 2002 07:43PM
<HTML>Oh come on, what do you expect of something knocked off in five minutes at worK? I can write MUCH worse poetry than that, let me tell you.</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: November 06, 2002 08:01PM
<HTML>Fair point.
It must take hours to construct the fine pile of literary wreckage that so distinguish the real thing!</HTML>
It must take hours to construct the fine pile of literary wreckage that so distinguish the real thing!</HTML>
Re: McGonagall
Posted by: dave (212.158.104.---)
Date: November 11, 2002 12:13PM
<HTML>but is it as bad as Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings?</HTML>
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