
The Disaster Poet - benbreen
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/disaster-poet
======
Mlller
The occasion for “The Tay Bridge Disaster” was also the occasion for a poem by
Theodor Fontane (1819–1898), which, however, is held in high regard: “Die
Brück’ am Tay”

German:
[https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCck%E2%80%99_am_Ta...](https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCck%E2%80%99_am_Tay)

Link to “Norman Barry's English translation”:
[http://www.johnmaynard.net/RelPoems.html](http://www.johnmaynard.net/RelPoems.html)

A side-by-side presentation with another translation:
[https://lyricstranslate.com/en/die-br%C3%BCck-am-tay-when-
we...](https://lyricstranslate.com/en/die-br%C3%BCck-am-tay-when-we-shall-
meet-again-bridge-over-tay.html)

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throwanem
Thank goodness! I _finally_ understand Douglas Adams' mention of "the second
worst poet in the English language" in the Hitchhiker's series, which I first
read ( _Restaurant_ , anyway) around age six or so. I finally _get_ it!

~~~
DonaldFisk
Not so fast. While he probably did want you to think of McGonagall (who's
infamous for his bad poetry), Adams wrote, "The very worst poetry of all
perished along with its creator Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge,
Essex, England in the destruction of the planet Earth." This was changed from
Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, who complained about the use of his
name and address. Paul Johnstone was a classmate of Adams and apparently did
write poetry.

There's an H2G2 page:
[https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Paula_Nancy_Millstone_Je...](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Paula_Nancy_Millstone_Jennings).

Paul Johnstone biography:
[https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/163180](https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/163180)

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tptacek
It's funny how many of these terrible poems sort of work if you imagine Ad-
rock and MCA from the Beastie Boys rapping them back and forth.

~~~
kasey_junk
Boyeee

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canjobear
More of this guy's poetry here: [http://www.mcgonagall-
online.org.uk/works](http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/works)

