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Everyone needs a Mr. Nobody in their house!

Mr. Nobody

I know a funny little man,
As quiet as a mouse,
Who does the mischief that is done
In everybody’s house!
There’s no one ever sees his face,
And yet we all agree
That every plate we break was cracked
By Mr. Nobody.

‘Tis he who always tears out books,
Who leaves the door ajar,
He pulls the buttons from our shirts,
And scatters pins afar;
That squeaking door will always squeak,
For prithee, don’t you see,
We leave the oiling to be done
By Mr. Nobody.

He puts damp wood upon the fire,
That kettles cannot boil;
His are the feet that bring in mud,
And all the carpets soil.
The papers always are mislaid,
Who had them last but he?
There’s not one tosses them about
But Mr. Nobody.

The finger marks upon the door
By none of us are made;
We never leave the blinds unclosed,
To let the curtains fade.
The ink we never spill; the boots
That lying round you see
Are not our boots, – they all belong
To Mr. Nobody.

-Anonymous

This artilce was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 11:09 am and is filed under Countries & Cultures, English, Great Britain, Languages, Mr. Nobody, Poems, Poetry, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

16 Responses to “Mr. Nobody – A Poem”

  1. asha Says:

    can you explain to me who is mr nobody it important for my scrapbook i must sent it tomorrow plese tell me who is mr nobody

  2. Lisa Says:

    I believe it can have two interpretations:

    1) Mr. Nobody is the person who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong in the house, but he’s really imaginary. It’s the people in the house doing the “bad” things, but they blame it on Mr. Nobody.

    2) Mr. Nobody is an elf sort of figure from mythology. They are known to make mischief. I saw this song in my daughter’s piano book and it had a picture of a little elf-like man.

  3. syahirah Says:

    can you tell me what is the theme of poem Mr.Nobody…..please tell me cause i have an exam tomorrow….

  4. Jodi Says:

    by the way. the author is not unknown. it’s by Walter De la Mare.

  5. Lisa Says:

    Hi Jodi,

    I’m curious what your source is about De la Mare? I can’t find any reference to him being the author of Mr. Nobody.

    -Lisa

  6. yvonne Says:

    There are some more verses to this somewhere as I remember reciting it as a child and there were definitely 5 verses. This was almost 50 years ago and it was from the children’s book of recitations.

  7. florida Says:

    My interpretation is very simple, Mr. Nobody is the person who keeps in doing wrong but does not admit to anybody when blamed…that’s why he is Mr. Nobody.

  8. keyla Says:

    to lisa…i just want to say…thank you for the infomation..nice the day!

  9. keyla Says:

    the mr nobody is mouse right?

  10. Lisa Says:

    I don’t think Mr. Nobody is a mouse. He’s more like a little dwarf. There is much folklore about the little people who create mischief in your house.

    But another interpretation is what Florida said above… whoever does wrong in your house claims it wasn’t them… so it was “Mr. Nobody”.

  11. Kelly Says:

    Could you please describe about mr.nobody?please…

  12. Tessy momoh Says:

    What if “mr nobody” is actually a spirit, coz I’ve seen cases were mischief was done in one’s room that was locked and no one else had any spare key to room and d door wasn’t forced open and d person was so sure he didn’t do that which was done in d room.

  13. cynthia k Says:

    I think ‘mr nobody’ is actually a sarcastic way of blaming the. Person who’s actually responsible for all the mischiefs but for some reason,will not admit it.He is likened to a mouse.

  14. sarah Says:

    what is the poem about?

  15. Nada Sattar Says:

    This poem makes sense, but I wonder who was the author of this poem. I can’t find anything about Mr. Walter Dela Mare, but whoever made this, his a GENIUS! it really makes sense. :)

  16. henry Says:

    Why is Mr. Nobody as quiet as a mouse?

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