Creepy Nursery Rhyme/Tale of the Day

[JadedFool]

"Antigonish"

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...

-Hughes Mearns

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by Daisy

“The Story of Augustus, Who Would Not Have Any Soup,” from the German of Heinrich Hoffmann (printed in The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks, selected by Burton Egbert Stevenson [New York, 1915], pp. 62-63)

Daisy, this is one of my very favorites!

And I dearly love the evocative illustrations which count down the days in which Augustus wastes away to thread-size:



That last rendering of Augustus is simply chilling. I used to see thread-sized "people" like that when I closed my eyes at night as a child. Something about this degree of thinness which is so very disturbing.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by JadedFool

"Antigonish" Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away... -Hughes Mearns

Man, Jaded. That's a brilliant one that I definitely intended--and forgot--to include. Love it. Thank you!

I'm brain dead tonight. More tomorrow!

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian

That last rendering of Augustus is simply chilling. I used to see thread-sized "people" like that when I closed my eyes at night as a child. Something about this degree of thinness which is so very disturbing.

Have you seen any of the statues created by Alberto Giacometti? If not, then, uh, forget I mentioned them. Yes, whatever you do, forget I mentioned them.

[JadedFool]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian

Quote Originally Posted by JadedFool "Antigonish" Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away... -Hughes Mearns Man, Jaded. That's a brilliant one that I definitely intended--and forgot--to include. Love it. Thank you! I'm brain dead tonight. More tomorrow!

Since I saw the film "Identity," that poem passes through my mind every once in a while, and this thread inspired me to finally look it up.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by JadedFool

Since I saw the film "Identity," that poem passes through my mind every once in a while, and this thread inspired me to finally look it up.

You know, I have this distorted memory of seeing that film, but I can't be quite sure that I have. It's like cinema-déjà vu. Weird.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon

Have you seen any of the statues created by Alberto Giacometti? If not, then, uh, forget I mentioned them. Yes, whatever you do, forget I mentioned them.

Whoops. I didn't forget. And I looked them up. Yikes. And thanks(?)

No--seriously: thanks, g. Fascinating work--and yes, highly evocative for me personally.

[dr. locrian]

It was only a matter of time till one of the Brothers Grimm tales were pulled out.

Here is a moderately creepy but very lively and entertaining one:

"The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear"

[Aetherwing]

Not to evoke shades of Tim Burton's latest offering, but I found aspects of the following poem, as well as the Tenniel art that accompanies it, to be extremely creepy. Something about the drawing of the monster was horrifying and hypnotic to me at once. Those claws were evocative of the chelicerae of a spider, and radiate a palapable menace; the face looks as if it has elements, however distorted, of an oriental dragon and an ancient catfish of some sort. It obviously houses an evil intellect, and not just the mind of a savage brute. I'd be quite afraid that the Jabberwock might torture its prey with who knows what atrocities. Worst of all, though, is that damn waistcoat. It is so incongruous, so bizarre. I wonder if Carroll directed Tenniel to add that, or if this was a detail conjured soley by the artist?
-Jimmy

[h1]JABBERWOCKY[/h1]
[h2]Lewis Carroll[/h2]
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.



"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.


`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

[Aetherwing]

Quote Originally Posted by JadedFool

"Antigonish" Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away... -Hughes Mearns

Haunting. Thank you.

Though not a children's tale/rhyme, there is a connection with the verse above and David Bowie's song 'The Man Who Sold the World':

We passed upon the stair
We spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there
He said I was his friend
Which came as a surprise
I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone
A long long time ago...

I've always liked that Bowie was inspired by this poem, especially as it seems to be from the perspective of the 'Man Who Was Not There' in the original poem.

-J