As I was walking 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.
Written by
William Hughes Mearns (1875-1965) in 1899 and published in
The Psychoed. Some sources incorrectly state that this text is a quotation of
Hughes Mearns rather than a poem.
The poem is often seen slightly modified, and occasionally renamed "Antigonish", such as:
As I was walking down the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh I wish he'd go away!
People who have read this poem seem to consider it from a number of very different points of view. One source said that this poem has been referred to by psychiatrists when trying to describe "
the weight of nothingness" felt by some of their patients. Other sources refer to it merely as a silly poem for children.
Edith Layton, an author, used the poem to help describe the feeling of not being alone in an empty room: "Did you ever feel the back of your neck prickle, and turn, expecting to see someone? And there's no one there? Sometimes it's frightening, sometimes not. "