William Topaz McGonagall

Immortal Robert Burns of Ayr,
There's but few poets can with you compare;
Some of your poems and songs are very fine:
To "Mary in Heaven" is most sublime;

Beautiful Ancient City of Perth,
One of the fairest on the earth,
With your stately mansions and scenery most fine,
Which seems very beautiful in the summer time;

'Twas in the year of 1866, and on a very beautiful day,
That eighty-two passengers, with spirits light and gay,
Left Gravesend harbour, and sailed gaily
On board the steamship "London,"Bound for the city of Melbourne,

Success to James Scrymgeour,
He's a very good man,
And to gainsay it,
There's few people can;

A sad tale of the sea I will relate, which will your hearts
Concerning the burning of the steamship "City of Montreal,"Which had on board two hundred and forty-nine souls in all,
But, alas
a fearful catastrophe did them be...

Good people of high and low degree,
I pray ye all to list to me,
And I'll relate a harrowing tale of the
Concerning the burning of the ship "Kent" in the Bay of Biscay,

AS in the month of December, and in the year l883,
That a monster whale came to Dundee,
Resolved for a few days to sport and play,
And devour the small fishes in the silvery Tay

Ye sons of Great Britain,
I think no
To write in praise of brave General Graham
Whose name will be handed down to posterity without any stigma,

Welcome, sweet Christmas, blest be the
That Christ our Saviour was born
Earth's Redeemer, to save us from all danger,
And, as the Holy Record tells, born in a manger

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay
Alas
I am very sorry to
That ninety lives have been taken

Ye lovers of the picturesque, away and
Beautiful Balmoral, near by the River Dee;
There ye will see the deer browsing on the heathery hills,
While adown their sides run clear sparkling rills

Mr
Smiggs was a gentleman,
And he lived in London town;
His wife she was a good kind soul,

A sad tale of the sea,
I will unfold,
About Mrs Lingard, that Heroine bold;
Who struggled hard in the midst of the hurricane wild,

Ye landsmen all attend my verse, and I'll tell to ye a
Concerning the barque "Wm
Paterson" that was lost in a tempestuous gale;
She was on a voyage from Bangkok to the Clyde with a cargo of Teakwood,

Twas at the camp of Rorke's Drift, and at tea-time,
And busily engaged in culinary operations was a private of the line;
But suddenly he paused, for he heard a clattering din,
When instantly two men on horseback drew rein beside him

Alas
Now o'er Britannia there hangs a gloom,
Because over 400 British Tars have met with a watery tomb;
Who served aboard the " Victoria," the biggest ship in the navy,