`Not there' poem?
Henry Churchyard
of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
Yesterday I saw upon the stair
A man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
How I wish he would go away
--
"Haughty Spain's fleet Advances to our shores, while ||chur...@ccwf.cc.utexas.
England's fate, Like a clipp'd guinea, trembles in ||edu Henry Churchyard
the scale!" -- Sheridan "The Critic" (1779) http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh
Mark Baker
stev...@indirect.com (Stephen T MacGregor) writes:
>> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
>> A man who wasn't there
>> He wasn't there again today
>> How I wish he would go away
>
> The version I saw ran...
>
> The other day, upon the stair,
> I saw a man who wasn't there.
> He wasn't there again today.
> (I think he's from the C.I.A.)
The version I've heard is
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I saw a man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today,
I really wish he'd go away
I'm fairly sure "he'd go away" is the original and the CIA is a recent joke.
But I don't know exactly what the words are.
Stephen T MacGregor
>Does anybody know the author (if not anonymous) and the correct form
>of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
> A man who wasn't there
> He wasn't there again today
> How I wish he would go away
The version I saw ran...
The other day, upon the stair,
I saw a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
(I think he's from the C.I.A.)
--
---------------------
Eschew obfuscation!
---------------------
Daan Sandee
>Tajpis lastatempe Henry Churchyard jene:
>>Does anybody know the author (if not anonymous) and the correct form
>>of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
>
>> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
>> A man who wasn't there
>> He wasn't there again today
>> How I wish he would go away
>
> The version I saw ran...
>
> The other day, upon the stair,
> I saw a man who wasn't there.
> He wasn't there again today.
> (I think he's from the C.I.A.)
ODQ :
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again to-day.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
Hughes Mearns (1875-1965): "The Psychoed".
I grant you that this long-lived individual witnessed the birth of the
CIA, but I rather think he wrote the above lines before that time ;
it is a long time since anyone spelled it "to-day."
On the other hand, "psychoed" can hardly date back all that far.
Oddly enough, though I think I know what it means, I can't find it in
any dictionary. (I know this is asking for the response "go get a better
dictionary".) As I understand it, someone is psychoed if he is gone
slightly crazy after a lot of stress. It does not mean he is a psycho.
Daan Sandee san...@think.com
Burlington, MA
A. Young
Well, the version I learned at my mother's knee (without the CIA) was:
Last night I met upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today --
Gee, I wish he'd go away!
Clearly this is something which has entered our folk ways, unlike the
poem on the Spanish Armada which I learned as a child from other local
children, but which I have never since found anyone else to recognise:
Don't be gutless,
Men of Britain,
Swing your cutlass,
We ain't quitin'.
For Good Queen Bess,
Dear sirs, you gotta
Make a mess of that Armada!
I'll bet none of you RAB-isti can find that in a book of quotations!
--
Dr Abigail Ann Young, Records of Early English Drama| young@epas.|
Victoria College, University of Toronto | utoronto.ca|
http://www.epas.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html || Home pages for REED & REED-L
http://www.epas.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html|| Try 'em, you'll like 'em
William C Waterhouse
> Does anybody know the author (if not anonymous) and the correct form
> of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
>
>
> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
> A man who wasn't there
The author is Hughes Mearns, 1875-1965. The original title is
"Antigonish." The original form is this:
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today!
I wish, I _wish_ he'd stay away!
Here is its background, taken from the note by David McCord in
his anthology of light verse called _What Cheer_ (New York, 1945).
"This admired quatrain was originally an untitled verse in a
play called _The Psyco-ed_, written for an undergraduate English
course at Harvard about the year 1899. In 1910 Mr. Mearns
put the play on with a group of college students... In 1922
F.P.A. printed the quatrain in `The Conning Tower' (then
appearing in the New York _World_).
"Undoubtedly many readers of `Antigonish' have reflected at
least once on the curious title... A word from Mr. Mearns - as
of October 1, 1944 - disperses the clouds: he chose `Antigonish'
as a title because at the moment the papers were carrying daily
stories of a haunted house in a village called Antigona or
Antigonia. `The ghost was always missing when the reporters
came.'...
"When the original "Antigonish" appeared...it was an instant
success and enjoyed wide popularity by word of mouth, undergoing
many variations in the process. According to its author, it reached
England in the 1930's, and was quoted by Chesterton and other
prominent writers. `Because of that,' says Mr. Mearns, `a small
controversy arose over authorship. Claire Leighton used it as
a chapter heading a year or so ago. She said she thought it was
a folk bit like Mother Goose.' ...
"Here's another Mearns. Let's not explain it.
THE PERFECT REACTIONARY
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."
William C. Waterhouse
Penn State
Bob Cunningham
>Tajpis lastatempe Henry Churchyard jene:
>>Does anybody know the author (if not anonymous) and the correct form
>>of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
>
>
>> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
>> A man who wasn't there
>> He wasn't there again today
>> How I wish he would go away
>
> The version I saw ran...
>
> The other day, upon the stair,
> I saw a man who wasn't there.
> He wasn't there again today.
> (I think he's from the C.I.A.)
>
Nun tajpos Bob Cunningham jene:
I haven't been following this thread closely, but I haven't seen
any mention of the fact that this poem was used in a popular song in
the US sometime in the past fifty or sixty years. As I recall, the
song had the added lines
"Go away. Go away. Don't come back anymore.
Go away. Go away. And please don't slam the door."
I think one hit recording of it was by the bandleader from the
Jack Benny radio show. He also played the part of a loudmouthed
boozer in the show. I think he also recorded the hit song "Six Tall
Slim Slick Sycamore Saplings" and a song that ended "Oh lord, if ya
can't help me, fer goodness sakes don't help dat bear!"
I can't remember his name at the moment. Can anyone help me?
---
BC | "Analog circuitry can only approximate
LA | the real digital world."
| -- Donato Russo (I think)
Richard VandeVelde
On Sun, 18 Feb 1996, Bob Cunningham wrote:
>
> I think one hit recording of it was by the bandleader from the
> Jack Benny radio show. He also played the part of a loudmouthed
> boozer in the show. I think he also recorded the hit song "Six Tall
> Slim Slick Sycamore Saplings" and a song that ended "Oh lord, if ya
> can't help me, fer goodness sakes don't help dat bear!"
>
> I can't remember his name at the moment. Can anyone help me?
Phil Harris?
-----==========----------=========V V=========----------===========-----
Dick VandeVelde | va...@math.luc.edu
Loyola University, Chicago | http://www.math.luc.edu/~vande
-----==========----------=========V V=========----------===========-----
Bob Cunningham
>
>On Sun, 18 Feb 1996, Bob Cunningham wrote:
>>
>> I think one hit recording of it was by the bandleader from the
>> Jack Benny radio show.
[...]
>> I can't remember his name at the moment. Can anyone help me?
>
>Phil Harris?
>
Yes, that's it! Thank you.
---
BC | "Short words are best and the old words
LA | when short are best of all."
| -- Winston Churchill
Earle D. Jones
(Bob Cunningham) wrote:
> stev...@indirect.com (Stephen T MacGregor) wrote:
>
> >Tajpis lastatempe Henry Churchyard jene:
===============** clip here **============
> I think one hit recording of it was by the bandleader from the
> Jack Benny radio show. He also played the part of a loudmouthed
> boozer in the show. I think he also recorded the hit song "Six Tall
> Slim Slick Sycamore Saplings" and a song that ended "Oh lord, if ya
> can't help me, fer goodness sakes don't help dat bear!"
>
> I can't remember his name at the moment. Can anyone help me?
============
Is it Phil Harris that you are trying to recall?
earle
=====
>
> ---
> BC | "Analog circuitry can only approximate
> LA | the real digital world."
> | -- Donato Russo (I think)
--
..no sig is good sig..
ukarumpa
>>>of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
>>
>>
>>> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
>>> A man who wasn't there
>>> He wasn't there again today
>>> How I wish he would go away
>>
>> The version I saw ran...
>>
>> The other day, upon the stair,
>> I saw a man who wasn't there.
>> He wasn't there again today.
>> (I think he's from the C.I.A.)
>>
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that he would go away
I'm checking, but I think it's either A.A.Milne, Lewis Carroll (although possibly
not weird enough) or a mystery writer whose name I cannot remember but who
penned a book of nonsense rhymes. Whomever the author, my mother used to read
a whole book of similar things to us as children.
I'll let you know once I've sussed it out.
Andrew Purdam
MacGregor) wrote (and very neatly, too):
>Tajpis lastatempe Henry Churchyard jene:
>>Does anybody know the author (if not anonymous) and the correct form
>>of the following poem, which I've reconstructed out of memeory? --
>> Yesterday I saw upon the stair
>> A man who wasn't there
>> He wasn't there again today
>> How I wish he would go away
> The version I saw ran...
> The other day, upon the stair,
> I saw a man who wasn't there.
> He wasn't there again today.
> (I think he's from the C.I.A.)
The version I remember was was the first two lines from the second amd
the last two lines from the first. And I think the author is Spike
Milligan, but I'm not sure. It may be in his book Open Heart
University.
Andrew
______________________________________________________________
Andrew Purdam Canberra, Australia apu...@pcug.org.au
"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes)." Walt Whitman (1819–92),
Simon Cauchi
Hughes Mearns (1875-1965) wrote:
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
I don't know if that's the complete poem or just part of it. I found it in
the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
--Simon Cauchi, cau...@wave.co.nz