Antigonish (poem)

"Antigonish" is an 1899 poem by American educator and poet William Hughes Mearns. It is also known as "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" and was adapted as a hit song under the latter title.

Poem

Inspired by reports of a ghost of a man roaming the stairs of a haunted house, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada,[1] the poem was originally part of a play called The Psyco-ed, which Mearns had written for an English class at Harvard University, circa 1899.[2] In 1910, Mearns staged the play with the Plays and Players, an amateur theatrical group, and on 27 March 1922, newspaper columnist FPA printed the poem in "The Conning Tower", his column in the New York World.[2][3] Mearns subsequently wrote many parodies of this poem, giving them the general title of, Later Antigonishes.[4]

Text

"As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
Oh how I wish he'd go away!" [1][2][3]

When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...

Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...

  1. ^ Mearns, quoted by Hayakawa, Samuel Ichiyé & Hayakawa, Alan R. (1990). Language in Thought and Action. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 96. ISBN 9780156482400. 
  2. ^ Mearns, quoted by Colombo, John Robert (2000). Ghost Stories of Canada. Dundurn. p. 46. ISBN 9781550029758. . Italics and exclamation points.
  3. ^ Mearns, quoted by Gardner, Martin (2012). Best Remembered Poems. Courier. p. 107. ISBN 9780486116402.  Italics and exclamation points.

Song

Other versions were recorded by:

Mearns' "Antigonish" has been used numerous times in popular culture, often with slight variations in the lines. Examples include:

Comics

...Upon the stair,
I met a man who was not there...
He was not there again today,
I wish to gosh he'd go away.

Films

Literature

Music

Multiple artists have used excerpts from or referenced "Antagonish" in songs. For example:

We passed upon the stair
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there
He said I was his friend…

Periodicals

There was a man upon the stair
When I looked back, he wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I think he's from the CIA.

In Downing Street upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't Blair.
He wasn't Blair again today.
Oh how I wish he'd go away.

Last night I saw upon the stair
A tallish man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!

Television

Other uses

See also

References

  1. ↑ Colombo, John Robert (1984). Canadian Literary Landmarks. Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-0-88882-073-0.
  2. 1 2 McCord, David Thompson Watson (1955). What Cheer: An Anthology of American and British Humorous and Witty Verse. New York: The Modern Library. p. 429.
  3. 1 2 Kahn, E. J. (30 September 1939). "Creative Mearns". The New Yorker. p. 11.
  4. ↑ Colombo (2000), p.47.
  5. ↑ "Lyrics: 'Occupation Double'", ParolesMania.com (in French). Accessed: January 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ Wildermuth, Elton (2007). "Nuit's 'Mother Night'". Leigh Ann's Home Machine. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  7. ↑ Parris, Matthew Parris (March 13, 2008). "Article 35". The Times.
  8. ↑ Moog, Caitlin Penzey (June 25, 2017). "Fear The Walking Dead asks: What’s the point of Bukowski?". AV Club.
  9. ↑ Pizzolatto, Nic (2014). "HBO: True Detective- Chapter Two: 'Seeing Things'", docs.google.com.
  10. ↑ "Rush". Pouët. 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  11. ↑ Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd. FindLaw.
  12. ↑ Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd. FindLaw. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
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