num_pages: 544
description: William McGonagall was born in Edinburgh in 1830. His father was a poor hand-loom weaver and his work took his family to Glasgow then to Dundee. William attended school for eighteen months before the age of seven and received no further formal education. Later as a mill worker he used to read books in the evening taking great interest in Shakespeares plays. In 1877 McGonagall suddenly discovered himself to be a poet. Since then thousands of people the world over have enjoyed the verse of Scotlands alternative national poet.This volume brings together the three famous collections  Poetic Gems More Poetic Gems and Last Poetic Gems  and also includes an introduction by Chris Hunt the webmaster of the McGonagall website www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk indexes of poem titles and first lines and features the first publication of McGonagalls only play Jack o the Cudgel  written in 1886 but not performed publicly until 2002.
language: English
title: Collected Poems
publisher: Birlinn