A POEM by Paul Curtis,
BASED ON THE STORY by
Charles Dickens “A
CHRISTMAS CAROL”
VERSE 8 – A VERY
UNEXPECTED VISITOR
Ebeneezer Scrooge took
his melancholy dinner alone
In his usual
melancholy tavern “The Regents Throne”
And after all the
daily newspapers had been duly read
Scrooge buttoned up
his coat and went home to bed
He lived in the
chambers, which were once the property
Of his deceased friend
and partner Mr. Jacob Marley
They were a gloomy
suite of rooms in a crumbling pile
Tucked away in a back
alley Close to the square mile
It was old, dreary and
but for Scrooge nobody lived in it
As all the other rooms
all being used as offices to be let
The fog and frost hung
about the doorway of the building
So That Scrooge could
only find the keyhole by feeling
Now, it is a fact,
that there was nothing at all particular
About the knocker on
the door neither strange or peculiar
Except that it was
large and in the form of a lion’s head
Though in all other
respects it was quite usual as I said
It’s a fact, that
Scrooge had seen it night and morning
From his first day
there to the last and every one during
Bearing in mind that
Scrooge had not thought in any way
Of Marley since
mention of his dead partner earlier that day
So then how could it
happen that Scrooge, key in the door
Saw in the knocker,
Marley’s face who wasn’t alive anymore
Not an angry face but
looked as he did before he was dead
With ghostly
spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead
Moments past As
Scrooge looked hard at this phenomenon
And then it was a
knocker again and Marley’s face was gone
To say that he was not
startled or scared would be untrue
He unlocked the door
and entered, what else was he to do
He did pause for a
moment before he shut the door
And he did look
cautiously behind it but did no more
There were only screws
and nuts to hold the knocker
So he said “Pooh,
pooh!” and slammed it like thunder
He fastened the door,
and walked slowly across the hall
And up the stairs lit
by his candle careful not to fall
The staircase was so
wide and gloomy, as the light was dim
He notioned he saw a
hearse and six white horses ahead of him
Scrooge dismissed it a
trick of the light or lack of it
And continued slowly
up the huge stair case to the summit
It would have been
easy to have had the entrance lit
But the Darkness is
cheap, and Mr. Scrooge liked it
Nonetheless before he
shut and bolted his heavy door
He walked through his
suite of rooms just to make sure
Nobody was under the
bed or behind the door there
Nobody was under the
table or indeed under the sofa
Quite satisfied, he
closed his door, and locked himself in
Thus secured against
surprise he began his undressing
Putting on his
slippers, nightcap and his dressing-gown
He prepared to take
supper by the fire where he sat down
On a bitter night it
was a very low fire with little fuel
Scrooge sat very close
to the fire while he took his gruel
The fireplace was paved
with tiles adorned with pictures
They were many and
varied and illustrated the Scriptures
Out of one of these
pictures Marley’s head was seen to zoom
“Humbug!” said Scrooge
and got up to pace the room
After several turns,
he sat down again and his gaze fell
In the direction of a
dusty corner and an old disused bell
It was with great
astonishment, and with a strange dread
He saw this bell start
swinging as he sat gazing ahead
It swung so softly in
the outset that it scarcely made a sound
But soon every bell in
the house rang loud and echoed around
This might have lasted
a minute, but it seemed like an hour
Then the bells ceased
just as they had begun, together
They were succeeded by
a clanking noise, deep down below
Scrooge thought maybe
chains dragging but he didn’t know
Then he heard the
noise coming up the stairs much louder
Then coming straight
towards his door louder and louder
“It’s humbug still!”
shouted Scrooge. “I won't believe it.”
His color changed
though and he was scared more than a bit
When, without a pause,
it came on through the heavy door
Passing into the room
before his eyes then moving no more
Scrooge thought its
Marley in his usual waistcoat not dead
From his tights and
boots even to the hair upon his head
The chain he drew was
clasped and about his middle it went
It was long, and wound
about him like tail of a serpent
It was made of
cash-boxes, keys, and had padlocks on
And ledgers, deeds,
and heavy purses wrought in iron
His body was
transparent, so that Scrooge, observing him
And looking through
him could see the wall though dim
Scrooge thought this
is Marley but he is decidedly dead
From his tights and
boots even to the hair upon his head
He looked at the
phantom but no matter what his mind says
He was still incredulous,
and fought against his senses
Said Scrooge
caustically “What do you want with me?”
“Much!” said the
unmistakable voice of Jacob Marley
“Who are you?”
Ebeneezer Scrooge asked hesitantly
“Why not ask me who I was.” Replied the entity
“Who were you then?” said Scrooge with
irritation
“You're very
particular indeed spirit, for an apparition
“In life I was your
partner,” said the spirit “Jacob Marley”
At this scrooge turned paler and his legs
turned to jelly
“Can you -- can you
sit down?” he asked his old partner
Doubtful of the
ghost’s ability to actually use a chair
“I can,” said Marley
surprised at the question
“Do it then.” Scrooge
instructed with apprehension
“You don't believe in
me,” observed the ghost Marley
“I do not,” said
Scrooge spitting out the words defiantly
“What evidence would
you want to have of my reality?
Beyond that of your
senses?” asked the strange entity
“I don't know,” said
Scrooge replying to the question
“Why do you doubt your
own senses?” asked the apparition
“Because” said Scrooge
“The slightest thing affects them
A slight disorder of
the stomach makes cheats of them
You may be an
undigested bit of beef quite possibly
Or a blob of mustard,
a crumb of cheese, or piccalilli
A fragment of an
underdone potato should I continue?
There's certainly more
of gravy than of grave about you”
Scrooge was very
pleased indeed with his little jest
But he still worried
about offending his uninvited guest
“You see this
toothpick?” Ebeneezer Scrooge then said
“I do,” Jacob Marley
answered without moving his head
“You are not looking
at it” Scrooge pointed out
“But I see it” said
the Ghost “without any doubt”
“Well I have but to
swallow without hesitation
And I’ll be plagued
goblins all of my own creation
It’s all a Humbug” said
Scrooge “Humbug I tell you!”
At this the spirit
raised up causing a terrible to do
Shaking his chains as
well as wailing and screaming
Poor Scrooge could
only hide behind his chair shaking
“Mercy!” Scrooge
pleaded “Why do you trouble me?”
“Do you believe in me
or not?” shouted Marley
“I do,” said Scrooge.
“I must oh yes spirit I do”
“But why do spirits
walk the earth tell me I beg you”
“It is required of
every man that the spirit within
Should walk forth, far
abroad among his fellowmen
But if the spirits do
not go forth during their life time
They are condemned to
do so after deaths chime”
Again the spirit
raised up causing a terrible to do
Shaking his chains
screaming as well as wailing too
“Wandering and
witnessing what they cannot share
But might have shared
on earth bringing happiness there”
“You are fettered,”
said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I wear the chain I
forged in life,” was the ghosts reply
“I forged this chain
link by link, and yard by yard
Made of my own free
will and toiled on very hard”
“The chain that you
wear yourself” he said in monotone
“Was as full and as
heavy and as long as my own
Seven Christmas Eves
ago you’ve labored on it since
Now it is a truly
ponderous chain” he saw Scrooge wince
Scrooge glanced about
him and could see nothing
“Jacob speak comfort
to me Jacob!” he said imploring
“I have no comfort to
give,” replied Jacob Marley
“That comes from other
regions and ministers than me
My spirit never walked
beyond our office so help me
Never roamed beyond
our money changing hole you see”
“But Jacob you were
always a good man of business”
“Business!” cried the
Ghost “Mankind was my business
The common welfare was
my business and forbearance
My business should
have been charity mercy and benevolence
The poor should have
counted in my business dealings”
Scrooge was horrified
by his old partner’s rantings
“Hear me!” cried the
Ghost. “My time is nearly gone”
“I will,” said Scrooge
“Please let’s just have it done”
“How I appear before
you in the form I cannot say
I have sat invisible
beside you many and many a day”
Scrooge found the idea
was not at all an agreeable one
And shivered at the
very thought of being spied upon
“I am here to-night to
warn you” Marley began to dictate
“That you have yet a
chance and hope of escaping my fate”
Scrooge replied “You
were always a good friend to me”
“You will be haunted,”
resumed the Ghost, “By spirits Three”
On hearing this news
made Scrooges temples throb
“Is that the chance
and hope you mentioned, Jacob?”
Ebeneezer demanded, in
a faltering voice “It is yes”
“I -- I think I'd
rather not,” said Scrooge in distress
“Without their
visits,” Jacob Marley's Ghost said
“You cannot hope to
shun the dreadful path I tread
Ebeneezer expect the
first of the visitors to come”
Marley continued
“Tomorrow, when the bell tolls one”
“Jacob Couldn't I take
all three of them together”
Scrooge suggested
nervously “And have it all over”
“Expect the second at
the same hour on the next night
The third upon the
next night on the stroke of midnight”
Jacob Marley wailed
“Look to see me no more Ebeneezer”
“And look at what has
passed between us and remember”
After these words, the
spectre backed slowly away
With each step the
window inched up a little way
When Marley reached
the window it was wide open
And he beckoned
Ebeneezer Scrooge to join him then
When they were within
two paces of each other
Marley's Ghost held up
its hand to stop him coming closer
Scrooge suddenly
became aware of a mournful sound
Marley's went out the
window hovering above the ground
Jacobs’s ghost was
joined by a throng of other spectre's
They had chains and
scrooge knew some of these others
Marley and the other
spirits and the voices faded together
And they then just
disappeared into the misty weather
Scrooge then closed
the window in against the night
He was shivering with
the cold as well as from fright
Then he examined the
door by which the Ghost entered
The double-locks and
bolts were all undisturbed
He was about to say
“Humbug!” but in the end didn’t
Being drained from
emotion it was in fact he couldn’t
Then overcome by the
fatigues of a long strange day
He went to bed falling
asleep almost straight away
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