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About this episode

Dan introduces a podcast episode about William McGonagall, a poet known for his poor poetry and historical failures.

Hey Dan here. Here’s a podcast from none other than TIH alumna, producer Georgia Mills! If you can’t get enough of historical failure after History’s Greatest Fails, give Cautionary Tales a listen. My royal favourites get one month free of a free subscription — look out for the gift link on our Patreon Court Gossip thread. In the meantime, here’s a sample episode. It’s the tale of a poet who thought his poem about the Battle of Crecy was going to rival Shakespeare… evidently, it did not. William McGonagall's poems are something else. The jarring meter, the banal imagery, the awkward rhymes: they made him a laughing stock in 19th Century Scotland and are still derided to this day. How does someone get that bad at poetry? Or have we been misunderstanding McGonagall all along? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Dan

Topics covered

• historical failure
• poetry
• 19th Century Scotland
• Cautionary Tales
• William McGonagall

Keywords

• historical failure
• poetry
• William McGonagall
• Cautionary Tales
• Battle of Crecy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sony Music Entertainment

Books & works: Cautionary Tales

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