Antigonish (poem)

"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

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....

In popular culture

Music entries

In 1939 "Antigonish" was adapted as a popular song titled "The Little Man Who Wasn't There", by Harold Adamson with music by Bernie Hanighen, both of whom received the songwriting credits.^[3] A 1939 recording of the song by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, with vocals by Tex Beneke, became an 11-week hit on Your Hit Parade and reached #7.^{[citation needed]}

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]}

Lil Wayne used a variation of the poem in his song "Pick Up Your Heart".^{[when?][citation needed]} The opening verse is featured on the opening track "Ytterligare ett steg närmare total jävla utfrysning" off the album Halmstad by Swedish band Shining.^{[when?][citation needed]} Other versions were recorded by Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra,^{[when?][citation needed]} Larry Clinton & His Orchestra with vocals by Ford Leary,^{[when?][citation needed]} and Bob Crosby & His Orchestra with vocals by Teddy Grace.^{[when?][citation needed]}

Non-music entries

Verifiable content

• The poem is used in Stan Dane's book, Prayer Man: The Exoneration of Lee Harvey Oswald, to allude to research that Lee Harvey Oswald was the man standing on the front steps of the Texas School Book Depository and termed the "prayer man", as filmed by Dave Wiegman of NBC-TV and Jimmy Darnell of WBAP-TV during the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.^{[5][non-primary source needed]}
• The Coen Brothers film, The Man Who Wasn't There, was given its title based on the poem.^[6][7]
• A paraphrased version of the poem's first stanza is quoted in the introduction to the third part of Stephen King's 2001 novel Dreamcatcher.^{[8][non-primary source needed]}

Unverifiable content

Dated entries

• The character Dr. Daniel Westin quotes part of the poem in the 1975 TV series, The Invisible Man (Season 1, Episode 9).^{[citation needed]}
• The poem is recited in the 1998 film, Velvet Goldmine.^{[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]}
• The 2009 horror film, The Haunting in Connecticut, quotes part of the poem.^{[citation needed]}
• The Season 9 (2022), Episode 9 of Father Brown, "The Enigma of Antigonish," features the poem as both inspiration for a criminal plot, and a clue that helps solve the crime.^{[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. https://rustyquill.com/show/the-magnus-archives/ (Season 3 MAG 85)
• Midsomer Murders's season 5 episode 2, "A Worm in the Bud" John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby mentions a part of the poem to Daniel Casey as DS Gavin Troy.^{[when?][citation needed]}
• 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]}
• Detective Humphrey Goodman references the poem when identifying the perpetrator in the murder in Season 4, Episode 1 of Death in Paradise, entitled "Stab in the Dark".^{[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 character Jack Frost, a Detective Inspector, recites the first and last paragraph of the poem in A Touch of Frost, the Season 14, Episode 1 entitled "Mind Games".^{[when?][citation needed]}
• Lazarus Long paraphrases the song in Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, after meeting a representative of the aliens known as "The Little People".^{[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]}
• The poem is paraphrased in serial 4 of Sapphire & Steel.^{[when?][citation needed]}

See also

• Extensional and intensional definitions
• Plato's beard
• The Man Who Sold the World (song), a song by David Bowie

References

1. Colombo, John Robert (1984). Canadian Literary Landmarks. Willowdale, Ont.: Hounslow Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0-88882-073-9 – via Internet Archive.
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. Kahn, E. J. (September 30, 1939). "Creative Mearns". The New Yorker. p. 11.
4. Colombo (2000), p.47.
5. Dane, Stan. Prayer Man: The Exoneration of Lee Harvey Oswald (Martian Publishing, 2015), p. 190. ISBN 1944205012^{[non-primary source needed]}
6. Einav, Dan (February 18, 2017). "Is this the Coen brothers' most underrated movie?". Little White Lies. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
7. Allen, William Rodney (2006). The Coen Brothers: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. 152. ISBN 9781578068890. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
8. King, Stepehen (March 20, 2001). "Dreamcatcher, A Novel". Google Play Books. Retrieved May 8, 2023.^{[non-primary source needed]}