The world of writing
MOORE-KISH RHYMES
The October issue of WM means it’s nearly time for Halloween, so forgive something a little ghoulish and, by modern standards, distastefully macabre, for the summer 2021 issue of the Hudson Review has published a remarkable article by Peri Klass on the 19th century tradition of obituary poems penned on the death of children.
In the essay we discover that a the truly terrible poet, Julia Ann Moore (1847–1920), was a mistress of the form, giving Scotland’s famed William McGonagall a hard run for his money. As Klass writes, Moore ‘was (1876) and (1878), volumes featuring poetry so terrible they assured her status as a joke even in her own lifetime. This example, taken from the poem , illustrates why:
