Spasmodic poet

The spasmodic poets, certainly with some derogatory as well as humorous intention, was applied to a group of British poets of the Victorian era, by William Edmonstoune Aytoun. This includes, possibly with justice George Gilfillan, the friend and inspiration of William McGonagall; Gilfillan worked fr 30 years on a long poem. Others associated were Sydney Thompson Dobell, Philip James Bailey, John Stanyan Bigg (1826-1865), Alexander Smith, and possibly Gerald Massey.

The epithet itself is attributed to Thomas Carlyle to Lord Byron. Aytoun's parodic Firmilian: A Spasmodic Tragedy (1854) is credited with gettng the verse of the Spasmodic School, to dignify it, laughed down as bombast.