"Antigonish" is a poem by the American educator and poet William Hughes Mearns, written in 1899. It is also known as The Little Man Who Wasn't There,[not verified in body] and has been adapted in song under this title.
History of the verse
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 William Hughes 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 March 27, 1922, the newspaper columnist F.P.A. 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]
Editions of the verse
This section needs expansion with: sources for this and any other important versions of the poem. You can help by adding to it. (December 2024)
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away!
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....
The Danish fusion-rock band Rainbow Band, later renamed to Midnight Sun, recorded a song based on the lyrics on two albums with two different vocalists, first in 1970, then in 1971.[citation needed]
Industrial metal band Psyclon Nine used the poem in their song The Unfortunate from their 2005 album INRI.[citation needed] In 2016, The Odd Chap released an electro swing version using samples from the Glenn Miller Band recording.[citation needed] In 2018, the experimental industrial group The Reptile Skins released an EP entitled Antigonish with the two lead singers having a different interpretation of the poem.[when?][citation needed] In 2019, the YouTube channel Estela Naïad released a song adapted from the poem, with the composition of the main theme and the voice of Estela Naïad, the harmonies and choirs of Priscilla Hernández, and the musical production of Naliam Cantero.[citation needed]
The 2003 movie, Identity, repeats the last verse of the poem at various parts in the movie, replacing its last presented line by the actual last line of the first verse.[citation needed]
In The Times', 19 October 2022 edition, the poem is facetiously used in a cartoon with "man" switched to "PM", in reference to Liz Truss, the former UK Prime Minister.[citation needed]
Undated entries
Episode 85 of The Magnus Archives, entitled “Upon the stair”, includes a full recitation of the poem, as well as multiple further references, to describe an entity in the man-who-becomes-not-there’s house.
In season 3 episode 5 of Fear the Walking Dead, entitled "Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame", the poem is referenced in the character Phil McCarthy's final words.[when?][citation needed]
The character Oppenheimer references the poem when blowing up a park in Vienna in the Season 5, Episode 7 of Strike Back, entitled "Legacy".[when?][citation needed]
The multiplayer role-playing game, Fallout 76's character, Smiling Man, added in the "Mutation Invasion" update, recites the final stanza of the poem as one of his lines of idle dialogue.[when?][citation needed]
^ abMcCord, David Thompson Watson] (1955). What Cheer: An Anthology of American and British Humorous and Witty Verse. New York: The Modern Library. p. 429.
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