Ford Madox Ford called Marzials "the handsomest, the wittiest, the most brilliant and the most charming of poets". Yet one of Marzials's claims to fugitive fame is authorship of reputedly the worst poem ever written. Called "A Tragedy", it begins: "Death! / Plop. / The barges down in the river flop. / Flop, plop," and it ends, "I can dare, I can dare! / And let myself all run away with my head, / And stop. / Drop / Dead. / Plop, flop. / Plop."

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 11:58 AM  |