Antigonish
‘Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there’’
I first heard this poem in an episode of ‘death in paradise. Now it may sound like another ‘Mr Nobody’ poem but it is far from it. The poem was inspired by reports of an apparition of a man in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The ghost would wonder around the house, but would vanish on the stairs.
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...
There is nothing creepier than coming home to find a man upon the stairs, waiting for you. In fact most people who live alone – or are gone alone have always had that unsettling feeling of being watched. We all see things out of the corner of our eyes… and we always convince ourselves ‘oh it’s just a trick of the light!’ But still, when you switch the lights of you quickly run to where the light is – so the monsters don’t slip out and get you!
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....
What is interesting is how this poem changes. And what we base our assumptions on. We are convinced that the person waiting for us is a man. An adult. But notice how the phrasing has subtly changed:
“A little man who wasn’t there”
Quite frankly there is nothing creepier or more haunting than that of a child. I’m truth there is nothing sadder than hearing about the ghost of a child, historically speaking there have been countless reports of souls of lost children wondering around waiting for their families to return. It could be argued that this ‘little man’ is doing just that. Although it frightens the narrator, this ghost may not be as scary as it seems, sure the narrator wishes for the ghost to go away, but the ghost is always waiting for him. Perhaps with no sinister intentions? What if its guilt? A reminder to the narrator of something sinister that they have done? One of the most famous child ghosts would be that of The Princes of The Tower, when their Uncle Richard III imprisoned them in the 1480s and they were never seen or heard of again.
To conclude, Antigonish is a small but equally creepy poem. Do not judge this poem at face value, for everything isn’t always as it seems. Like The Princes in The Tower who’s sightings are still reported today, you can never be too trusting of adults. A guilty conscience will always come back to haunt you.