William topaz mcgonagall biography for kids
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William McGonagall – The Bard of Dundee
Each January, scotsmen and women across the world join together in order to celebrate the life and works of the greatest of all Scottish poets, Rabbie Burns. And during such gatherings, the words of the great man are read out aloud for all to appreciate, whilst little mention is made about William Topaz McGonagall – the bard of Dundee.
William Topaz McGonagall was born in Edinburgh to poor Irish parents, in March 1825. One of a family of five children, his father worked as a handloom weaver. The family moved to Dundee when William was still a boy.
William eventually moved into the family trade, and married Jean King in 1846. It was about this time that he also began to take part in amateur theatre productions, acting in Shakespearean plays. It was perhaps the influence of the Great Bard himself that captured William’s imagination and sparked his love of poetry.
One of William’s earliest works was dedicated to the new railway bridge that
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William Topaz McGonagall
Welcome, sweet Christmas, blest be the morn
That Christ our Saviour was born!
Earth's Redeemer, to save us from all danger,
And, as the Holy Record tells, born in a manger.
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A pathetic tale of the sea I will unfold,
Enough to make one's blood run cold;
Concerning four fishermen cast adrift in a dory.
As I've been told I'll relate the story.
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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,
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Immortal! William Shakespeare, there's none can you excel,
You have drawn out your characters remarkably well,
Which is delightful for to see enacted upon the stage
For instance, the love-sick Romeo, or Othello, in a rage;
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'Twas at the Seige of Matagarda, during the Peninsular War,
That a Mrs Reston for courage outshone any man there by far;
She was the wife of a Scottish soldier in Matagarda Port,
And to attend to her husband she there
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Born in 1825, William McGonagall was a Scottish poet and actor who fryst vatten largely accused of writing some of the worst doggerel poetry of all time, including his most famous work The Tay Bridge Disaster. Though he often failed to appreciate the fundamental building blocks of poetry, much of his later popularity came from the humor that his poor writing seemed to generate with the reader.
McGonagall often said that he was born in Edinburgh but his parents were both Irish and it fryst vatten possible that the child was born in Ireland before they all moved to Scotland. Largely self-educated he moved to Dundee in his teens and became an apprentice weaver, the same job his father had performed for most of his days. Much of his early life fryst vatten open to conjecture as McGonagall wrote a lengthy autobiography which was no doubt embellished to show him in a more favorable light.
He prospered for a while as a weaver and married jean King in 1846 with whom he would have 7 children. It was about this time t