# Full Text of "The Psychoed"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-text-of-the-psychoed/62345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 18, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-text-of-the-psychoed/62345 "2001-04-18T00:07:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jack\_Maxwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@Jack\_Maxwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Maxwell)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-text-of-the-psychoed/62345/1 "2001-04-18T00:07:04Z")

</div>

The following little poem has quite a little following.

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.

It is credited to a fellow named Hughes Mearns, and I have seen reference to “The Psychoed” as a publication and as a play. I even found one other quatrain which is almost as interesting.

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.

What I can’t find is any reference to the complete text. Not as a book, not as an online document, not as a part of a larger publication. Does anyone know the history of this cute little piece of doggerel? Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shiva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shiva)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-text-of-the-psychoed/62345/2 "2001-04-18T01:39:13Z")

</div>

A little help maybe:

[http://www.lyfe.freeserve.co.uk/manwhowasntthere.htm](http://www.lyfe.freeserve.co.uk/manwhowasntthere.htm)

[http://www.flashpointmag.com/guddin~1.htm](http://www.flashpointmag.com/guddin~1.htm)

[http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:awpwriter.org/fenza1.htm+"Hughes+Mearns"+"Creative+Power"&hl=en](http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:awpwriter.org/fenza1.htm+%22Hughes+Mearns%22+%22Creative+Power%22&hl=en)

Dang, the guy _invented_ Creative Writing. Whodathunkit?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-text-of-the-psychoed/62345/3 "2001-04-18T06:05:50Z")

</div>

**Jack** , your title appears to have gotten mangled, there. If you let [Jill](mailto:jillgat@aol.com) or [me](mailto:bambeck@physics.montana.edu) know what you wanted it to be, we can fix it for you. For future reference, if you use “double quotes” in a title, and submit from the “preview” page, the board software will eat everything after the quotes.