Audiobook · read by volunteers
Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay
William Topaz McGonagall (1825–1902)
Read by Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Brett Shand, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Fox in the Stars, Martin Clifton, Marlo Dianne, Mark F. Smith, Peter Eastman, Stephan Möbius, Stefan Schmelz · 9 chapters · 26 min
About the book
William McGonagall is often named the worst poet in the English language, and nothing proves it more cheerfully than his tribute to a railway bridge. Here the same poem is read nine times by different LibriVox volunteers, and the effect is delightful: each one has to decide how to deliver lines of such stubborn earnestness, and each finds a different way to keep a straight face, or fail to. The poem celebrates the great bridge across the Tay with a mix of civic pride and unstoppable rhyme, and in the hands of these readers it becomes something between a recital and a comedy sketch. It was recorded for the weekly poetry project to mark April Fool's Day, and the mood is exactly that. Expect solemnity, giggles and a slightly alarming confidence from a poet who never doubted himself. About twenty-five minutes of good-natured fun.
Introduction
William Topaz McGonagall, who lived from 1825 to 1902, was a Scottish weaver turned poet who became famous for the wrong reasons. He wrote with total sincerity about floods, battles, shipwrecks and public works, and his verse, with its clumsy rhythm and fearless rhymes, has been enjoyed ever since as a monument to unintended comedy. He is widely considered one of the worst poets of the English language, a reputation that has kept his work in print and in recital long after more careful writers were forgotten.
The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay dates from 1878 and honours the new rail bridge over the River Tay, which opened that year. The bridge collapsed in a storm a year later, killing seventy-five passengers on a train, and McGonagall then wrote a second poem about the disaster, which is, if anything, more famous than this one. The earlier poem here is the cheerful one, written before anything had gone wrong.
This collection is a multi-version recording from the weekly poetry project. Nine volunteers each read the poem in turn, and the result takes roughly twenty-five minutes. Hearing it repeated is part of the point. The poem's strengths and weaknesses show up differently with every voice, and the contest between a reader's composure and the verse's earnestness is a pleasure in itself. It is an affectionate way to meet one of literature's most beloved failures, and a reminder that bad poetry, read well, can be very good company. Whether you are a connoisseur of bad verse or simply curious about a famous reputation, this is a short, spirited and happily irreverent way to make the acquaintance.
Public domain
William Topaz McGonagall died in 1902: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text