A New Year's Resolution To Leave Dundee Poem by William Topaz McGonagall
A New Year's Resolution To Leave Dundee
Welcome! thrice welcome! to the year 1893,
For it is the year I intend to leave Dundee,
Owing to the treatment I receive,
Which does my heart sadly grieve.
Every morning when I go out
The ignorant rabble they do shout
'There goes Mad McGonagall'
In derisive shouts as loud as they can bawl,
And lifts stones and snowballs, throws them at me;
And such actions are shameful to be heard in the city of Dundee.
And I'm ashamed, kind Christians, to confess
That from the Magistrates I can get no redress.
Therefore I have made up my mind in the year of 1893
To leave the ancient City of Dundee,
Because the citizens and me cannot agree.
The reason why? -- because they disrespect me,
Which makes me feel rather discontent.
Therefore to leave them I am bent;
And I will make my arrangements without delay,
And leave Dundee some early day.
Oh, I am dying of laughter here! If the reason the citizenry of Dundee mock him and laugh at him is because of the poetry he writes, oh my word, I am on their side... unless he washes up on our unsuspecting shores... oh, we're safe, he has passed on and is, poor soul, in heaven where they, being angels, try hard to stifle their laughter
McGonagall's writing is the perfect example of the difference between verse and poetry. He writes in verse but what he writes never rises above prose. The effect here is sad and rather pathetic.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/23/2024 9:19:42 AM # 1.0.0.1119
I must disagree with previous comments. This may be the best poem of 1893 (or 1892) that I have read.