# Can you name the poem this comes from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011 "2002-10-05T23:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/1 "2002-10-05T23:30:51Z")
I quite like William McGonagall, a poet who ranked with the Vogons for true awfulness: > **[h2g2 - Oops.](https://h2g2.com/classic/A416341)** > > h2g2, the Unconventional Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything But something is bugging me, and I’m sure you can help. I distinctly remember something in one of his poems like this (describing a heavy fall of snow): “**From inches three To inches three foot four**" Can you help? Do you know where this comes from? All posts will be treated sympathetically. And to reward anyone who opened this thread… From ‘The Guardian’ newspaper, today: Any divorced woman turning up with a copy of her decree nisi to a play in London will get in free. The play is called… …The woman who cooked her husband! ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/2 "2002-10-06T01:22:42Z")
Couldn’t find the poem, but I did find the line in a rather odd transcript and a mention of McGonagall: [http://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/scripts/hastings.html](http://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/scripts/hastings.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/3 "2002-10-06T01:47:15Z")
This page is titled “The Whippets of Pevensey”, but makes no mention of McGonagall. Perhaps the poem is a parody of William’s work: [http://www.equilibrium.freeserve.co.uk/themears/pev.htm](http://www.equilibrium.freeserve.co.uk/themears/pev.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BalmainBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BalmainBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BalmainBoy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/4 "2002-10-06T07:44:54Z")
The quoted line was used in an episode of The Goon Show, a British radio comedy of the 1950’s with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. Milligan was quite a McGonagall devotee, in the sense of using him as a muse for his anarchic humour. The episode in question was a send-up of McGonagall’s poem of the collapse of the bridge over the river Tay, and the ensuing train disaster. I’m sure a BBC website will have Goon Show transcripts - they are still marketing recordings of the shows. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/5 "2002-10-06T08:22:06Z")
**vivalostwages** , Many congratulations! Here is your first prize: 🆒 🆒 🆒 Incidentally, I sense a bit of a ‘pun’ with your name, but the joke ‘escapes’ me :rolleyes: **Sternvogel** , A fine effort! Here is your ‘silver medal’ prize: 😃 😃 **BalmainBoy** , An honourable third - well done! Here is your third place prize: 🙂 And so we come to the end of another thread. Who would have thought that our journey would have combined the World’s Worst Poet with the World’s Funniest Radio Show. (glee turns to leave podium and slips on banana skin. Laughter.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-the-poem-this-comes-from/131011/6 "2002-10-06T18:12:18Z")
I just can’t resist… My heart expands 'tis grown a bulge in it Inspired by Your beauty effulgent (ducks flying rotten vegetables and runs for the stage door)