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