Antigonish

for pianist/speaker, 2012, duration: 7 minutes

Scheduled to be premiered on October 18, 2012 by Jordan Nelson at West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania.


"Antigonish" is a poem by American educator and poet Hughes Mearns.  It is also known as "The Little Man Who Wasn't There”.

 

Poem

Inspired by reports of a ghost of a man roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, the poem was originally part of a play called The Psyco-ed which Mearns had written for an English class at Harvard University about 1899.

 

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... (slam!)

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


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T   © Larry Nelson 2019