What is the new world’s worst poem?

In the world of literature, everyone has differing tastes when it comes to poetry. A poem I might love, you might call worthless trash (at least I’d hope you wouldn’t be that harsh). But some poems are just so bad, so irritating – like nails sliding down a chalkboard (pardon the cliche`), that there’s little room for debate.

19th Century British poet Theophile Jules-Henri Marzials just might steal the title of having written the world’s worst poem, a title previously held by William McGonagall. The poem that Marzials’ wrote is titled "A Tragedy" (even the title screams: "This poem has problems!), and it’s going to live up to its name:

The 1873 collection of verse in which it was published, The Gallery of Pigeons, was once highly praised. But – in picking Marzials as one of the new entries for its website today- the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says the poem is now claimed as the worst ever written. It quotes the last line as an example.

I’m not going to kick poor old Marzials while he’s down, so I’m not going to give my own criticism of his poem. Here’s a link to the story at the Guardian Unlimited website where, at the bottom of the article, you can read the poem and judge for yourself: New contender for world’s worst poem

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