McGonagall og Larkin: En sammenlignende digtanalyse

The poems, The Tay Bridge Disaster by William Topaz McGonagall and This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin has but one thing in common – both writers are from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And here the comparison ends in every way imaginable, because while McGonagall has the ill flattering honour of being called the worst poet ever in British history. Larkin's poetry has been characterized as a conventional and colloquial style of poetry.

But then again, maybe somewhere within the vowels and syllables we can find some common ground in their writing.

The poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster, is a true story about a train disaster in Scotland in the late nineteen century. All stanzas are told in a way that make each verse able to stand alone, like here in stanza two where we are told the time and get a feel for the mood and the conditions when the train is wrecking.

“Twas about seven o’clock at night,And the wind it blew with all its might,And the rain came pouring down,And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-“I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.””

The poem consists of eight stanzas which are all written in this non-rhythmical form, characteristic to the writing of McGonagall, e.g. from stanza eight “It must have been an awful sight, to witness in the dusky moonlight”. Had McGonagall on the other hand changed the words a bit, it would have been melodic and rhythmical e.g. “It must have been an awful sight, to witness it in dusky light”. This slight change in lyrics could have, if applied to the whole poem, changed it from bad to a bit better than bad. The poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster is one of McGonagall many poems written and published about great events and tragedies, McGonagall`s poems is for the most parts true stories of the days in which he lived.