The Worst Poet in the World | From Cautionary Tales
5/7/202641 min
In light of our current series on mistakes, we're sharing an episode from Cautionary Tales—a podcast that’s all about mistakes and what we can learn from them. This story is about a poet—some say the worst poet in the world–William McGonagall. McGonagall's works were full of jarring meter, banal imagery, and awkward rhymes. They made him a laughing stock in 19th Century Scotland and are still derided to this day.
What can we learn from such a disastrous poet? And it is possible we’ve misunderstood McGonagall all along?
We'll be back with a new mistake next week.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMalcolm Gladwell· Host0:00
[intro music] [pencil writing] Pushkin. You're about to hear an episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford. Tim's podcast explores mistakes from history, and importantly, what we can learn from them. As you can imagine, there's a lot of disasters to choose from, but there's always an interesting angle on what we can take from them. I learn something new every time. You'd be surprised, but a shipwreck from the '60s can teach us something about a mistake we all make when making decisions today. This episode is about a poet. William McGonagall is remembered today as the worst poet in the world, and Tim is obsessed with his work. I think I am, too. Here's a quick example. "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. 'Twas on the eighth April, on the afternoon of that day, at the village of Louisburgh was thrown into a wild state of disarray." So what can we learn from a disastrous poet? Tim has a few ideas, and in true revisionist history style, he has a feeling we've been understanding McGonagall all wrong. Enjoy the episode. It's one of my favorites. And make sure you subscribe to Cautionary Tales for plenty more disasters and plenty more lessons.
Unknown speaker1:25
[wind blowing]