to stare at the air on the stair

Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how 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

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

-- {according, The Free Encyclopedia}  composed in 1899 as a song for a play, by Hughes Mearns.  The play was performed in 1910 and the poem was first published as "Antigonish" in 1922.

Mearns (1875 - 1965) was a Professor at the Philadelphia School of Pedagogy.  He wrote two influential books:  Creative Youth, in 1925, and Creative Power, pub. 1929.  Essayist Gabriel Gudding credits those books with "lighting a fuse" under the teaching of creative writing, influencing a generation of scholars.---------------- [end Free Encyclopedia excerpts]

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