Help! I need to write an explanation of what this poem means...

When I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish that he would go away.

Mearns wrote a handful of similar ditties, and inspired many parodies and imitations.

As I was sitting in my chair,
I knew the bottom wasn't there,
Nor legs nor back, but I just sat,
Ignoring little things like that.

Do they 'mean' anything? Other than wordplay, I would doubt it. Sort of like Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess.

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

Catchy, but nothing deep involved.

Redmoon, it's just a nonsense poem intended to make the reader think about the words.

Go here, for a previous discussion:

[tinyurl.com] />

Les



Post Edited (09-07-04 12:28)

Hugh and Les may be right, it probably means nothing. On the other hand, if this is an assignment, it may mean something to your teacher. Perhaps it's a ghost story of sorts and Mr. Mearns was being haunted.

john

Well, it may also help to know that the poem was originally titled "Antigonish". There was a village in Nova Scotia called Antigona (or perhaps Antigonia). The daily newspapers at that time were carrying repeated stories of a haunted house in that town. Perhaps predictiably, the ghost was always missing when the reporters arrived.

Gelett Burgess insisted that Antigonish was a new nonsense form, and went on to say that the 'man who wasn't there' is a terrifying experience for women whose mate does not appear but is so permanently in their thoughts as they ascend the stair that it would be natural for them to cry out, "I wish to God he'd stay away!". He further claimed it was a quatrain of female frustration. For further discussion, see What Cheer, by David McCord, in the second last section, titled After All.

Another by HM, in the same, uh, vain:


The Lady With Technique

As I was letting down my hair
I met a guy who didn't care;
He didn't care again today --
I love 'em when they get that way!

Interesting information Hugh, but I infer you meant to refer to Mearns, not Burgess, in the second para of your last post.

In the verse as quoted by Redmoon, I'm pretty sure the 4th line is incorrect. The words in it are scarcely weighty enough to match the strong 4-beat of the other three. Verses like this mutate on the Internet through misquotation, so the Internet is an unreliable source, but through a quick search there I find the following other versions of the 4th line (and there are probably more):

I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

I wish that man would go away.

Oh how I wish he'd go away.

Does anyone know which is the correct version?

As for meaning, you can give this memorable, paradoxical piece of nonsense whatever plausible one fits for you, Redmoon.

For example, besides the possibilities alread offered, the 'man who wasn't there' might be a CIA or MI5 agent whom you know is there but whose existence isn't officially acknowledged; or a man whom you surprise in some location where he isn't meant to be and who says to you in conspiratorial tone "You haven't seen me"; or someone whose influence remains overpowering even though he has long gone; or just a metaphor for something missing with which you have become obsessively preoccupied (cf. the admonition to 'keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole').

I infer you meant to refer to Mearns, not Burgess ...

Huh? I mean to say there that the 'terrifying experience' was Gelett's interpretation of the Mearns quatrain. That may be what the instructor was driving at?

We have had previous discussions of the last line. I have also seen, Oh God, I wish he'd stay away. I personally believe the correct version was,

I wish, I wish he'd stay away (italics on the 2nd wish)

[tinyurl.com]

Oops. I went back to my copy of What Cheer, and I see that you are correct, Ianb. My memory was faulty. The 'terrifying experience' quote really was by Mearns, not by Burgess, so I infer we will have to accept this as the correct interpretation as to the ditty's meaning.

I see also in the McCord text that the quatrain was originally an untitled verse in a play named The Psyco-ed that Mearns wrote for an English course at Harvard, regarding the year 1899. I infer there was likely a female speaker who said the lines, but cannot be sure.

thank you all for the great info...

This little popem has always nibbled at my head. It is surely straightforward and without depth, let us not make more of it than it is but it is the feeling that the reader gets after which is of note here. Fruitless to expand on the text itself but the feeling that remains with me is indeed deep, ominous and even slightly melancholic.

I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

That's the version that was in the book I owned when I was quite young -- a long time ago.