A Scottish poet so bad he was often asked to perform just so the audience could laugh at him will have his verse etched in stone in the city where he worked. William Topaz McGonagall, who died in 1902, has gained posthumous recognition in the Scottish city of Dundee, which plans to mark the centenary of his death by engraving part of his poems on a walkway by the river Tay. "His poetry is so bad it's memorable," said Niall Scott, director of City of Discovery Campaign, the organization behind the plan. "Dundee has recognized the need to honor McGonagall as somebody absolutely dedicated to the art of awful poetry." McGonagall was a textile industry worker who began writing poetry at the age of 47 after a "muse" visited him in his Dundee apartment. "All of a sudden my body got inflamed, and instantly I was seized with a strong desire to write poetry, so strong, in fact, that in imagination I thought I heard a voice crying in my ears write! write!" the poet recounted in his autobiography. For the following 25 years, McGonagall chronicled events from battles to the opening of hotels in dreadful verse. "No one can surpass him for being the worst poet," said Mervyn Rolfe, chairman of City of DiscoveryCampaign and a member of the Dundee-based McGonagall Appreciation Society. "He doesn't care how many words there are in the line as long as the last words rhyme,so the meter is appalling."

一位苏格兰诗人蹩脚到了人们经常要求他表演以取乐的地步，而他工作的城市将把他的诗作铭刻在石头上。威廉·托珀士·迈贡纳高于1902年去世后在苏格兰城市邓迪赢得了名声，该城市计划把他的部分诗作刻在泰河边的走道上，以此纪念他逝世100周年。发起这一计划的组织是“发现城市运动”，其主管尼亚尔·斯科特说：“他的诗糟到了值得纪念的程度，邓迪市已经意识到应当向这样一个全心投入蹩脚诗歌创作的人物致敬。”迈贡纳高是一个纺织工人，他47岁时一位“缪斯”造访了他在邓迪的公寓，随后他就开始写诗。这位诗人在自传中写道：“我的身体突然开始燃烧，顷刻之间我被写诗的强烈愿望所俘获。实际上，这种愿望是如此地强
烈，以致我好似听到一个声音在耳边大声呼喊：写吧！写吧！”此后的25年中，迈贡纳高把从战役到旅店开业的各种事件写成了难以卒读的诗篇。“发现城市运动”主席及邓迪的迈贡纳高欣赏会成员默文·罗尔福说：“没有人比他更适合最蹩脚诗人这一称号。他不管一行诗里有多少个词，只要最后一个词合韵就行，因此他的诗几无韵律可言。”

Remarks：这位先生一生都活在自以为是一个大诗人的美梦里，他的遭遇和当代许多“家”不同的原因在于他的同时代人比较清醒，因此他不幸在还活着时就成了小丑。