Authors: Kathryn Petras
Very Bad Poetry
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL, APRIL 1997
Copyright
©
1997 Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Very bad poetry / edited by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76597-0
1. English poetry 2. American poetry.
I. Petras, Kathryn. II. Petras, Ross.
PR1175.V55 1997
821.008—dc21 96-51788
v3.1
Fear not, grand eagle
The bay of the beagle!
Fred Emerson Brooks
(fl. 1894)
from
“Old Eagle”
Introduction
I seemed to feel as it were a strange kind of feeling stealing over me, and remained so for about five minutes. A flame, as Lord Byron has said, seemed to kindle up my entire frame, along with a strong desire to write poetry…
It was so strong I imagined that a pen was in my right hand, and a voice crying, “Write Write!” So I said to myself, ruminating, let me see; what shall I write? then all at once a bright idea struck me.
S
o did William McGonagall, probably one of the worst poets of the English language, describe his first session with the poetic Muse.