#gonnagle

[justmori]

Terry Pratchett’s Gonnagles were a nod to the notoriously bad poet William McGonagall

Just in case you didn’t already know.

You can hear some of William McGonnagall’s scary poetry HERE.

[amethyst42]

The inspiration for Gonagalls, found in Discworld.

With the Nac Mac Feegles, their musicians/poets are called Gonagalls. They are notoriously bad, and in fact are used to terrify the enemy. William McGonnagle, 1825-1902, according to Wikipedia: "gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. " Additionally, "McGonagall has been lampooned as the worst poet in British history. The chief criticisms are that he was deaf to poetic metaphor and unable to scan correctly. His only apparent understanding of poetry was his belief that it needed to rhyme". And reading his poetry, I can now see that Pratchett modelled his poetry exactly on McGonagall's "metre". This is his poem about the Tay Bridge Disaster, a railroad bridge which had a terrible collapse, in the late 19th century:

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!

Alas! I am very sorry to say

That ninety lives have been taken away

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember'd for a very long time.