The Poets Honor William McGonagall
Tonight, the Bushel Light Cafe will host a group reading honoring the life and work of William McGonagall. Works read will include the poems of William himself as well as works inspired by him. Expected readers include yet-to-be-named neosurrealists who will at long last admit that they were inspired by McGonagall’s rich images such as that described by his illustrator, Charles Nasmyth:
When I read those lines from ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’ which went ‘When the train left Edinburgh/ the passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow/ but Boreas blew a terrific gale/ which made their hearts for to quail…’, I had a vision of Victorian ladies and gentlemen sitting in a train, their chests bursting open and their hearts turning into quails and flying off.
(quote via)