Poetrie: Out There Somewhere

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The Poem That Inspired The Mucker

The title of Henry Herbert Knibbs poem Out There Somewhere was Edgar Rice Burroughs'(ERB) original title for Part II of THE MUCKER, written in 1916. A prominent feature of this story was the educated vagabond named Bridge, who was continually breaking into verse with affectionate odes to the open road. Almost everything that is quoted by Bridge in THE MUCKER comes from the same Knibbs poem. Knibbs, born in 1874, was a Canadian contemporary of Burroughs, and it is clearly apparent that ERB was much taken by his verse. It was published in 1914 by the Houghton Mifflin Co. as part of a collection called Songs of the Outlands: Ballads of the Hoboes and Other Verse.

There is every indication that ERB actually was inspired to use his poem as a framework around which to build his story. Out There Somewhere has fourteen stanzas and Burroughs took them individually (not in their original order) and quoted no less than eleven of them all through the story. Stanzas 2 and 3, which ERB did not quote, appear to be the source for the character of Bridge. In addition to this, he used the last stanza to end the book, thus linking the conclusions of both works.

OUT THERE SOMEWHERE by Henry Herbert Knibbs

As I was hiking past the woods, the cool and sleepy summer woods,

I saw a guy a-talking to the sunshine in the air;

Thinks I, he's going to have a fit -- I'll stick around and watch a bit;

But he paid no attention, hardly knowing I was there.

He must have been a college guy, for he was talking big and high, --

The trees were standing all around as silent as a church --

A little closer I saw he was manufacturing poetry,

Just like a Mocker sitting on a pussy-willow perch.

I squatted down and rolled a smoke and listened to each word he spoke;

He never stumbled, reared or broke; he never missed a word,

And though he was a Bo like me, he'd been a gent once, I could see;

I ain't much strong on poetry, but this is what I heard:

"We'll dance a merry saraband from here to drowsy Samarkand.

Along the sea, across the land, the birds are flying South,

And you, my sweet Penelope, out there somewhere you wait for me,

With buds of roses in your hair and kisses on your mouth.

"The mountains are all hid in mist; the valley is like amethyst;

The poplar leaves they turn and twist; oh, silver, silver green!

Out there somewhere along the sea a ship is waiting patiently,

While up the beach the bubbles slip with white afloat between.

"The tide-hounds race far up the shore -- the hunt is on! The breakers roar,

(Her spars are tipped with gold and o'er her deck the spray is flung);

The buoys that rollic in the bay, they nod the way, they nod the way!

The hunt is up! I am the prey! The hunter's bow is strung!"

"Out there somewhere," --says I to me."By Gosh! I guess that's poetry!

Out there somewhere - Penelope - with kisses on her mouth!"

And then, thinks I, 'O college guy, your talk it gets me in the eye,

The North is creeping in the air; the birds ARE flying South.'

And yet, the sun was shining down, a-blazing on the little town,

A mile or so way down the track a-dancing in the sun.

But somehow, as I waited there, there came a shiver in the air;

"The birds are flying South," he says. "The winter has begun."

Says I, "Then let's be on the float; you certainly have got my goat;

You make me hungry in my throat for seeing things that's new.

Out there somewhere we'll ride the range a-looking for the new and strange;

My feet are tired and need a change. Come on! It's up to you!"

"There ain't no sweet Penelope somewhere that's longing much for me,

But I can smell the blundering sea and hear the rigging hum;

And I can hear the whispering lips that fly before the outbound ships;,

And I can hear the breakers on the sand a-booming 'Come!'"

And then that slim, poetic guy, turned and looked me in the eye:

"It's overland and overland and overseas to -- where?"

"Most anywhere that isn't here." I says. His face went kind of queer:

"The place we're in is always HERE. The other place is THERE."

He smiled, though, as my eye caught his. "Then what a lot of THERE there is

To go and see and go and see and go and see some more."

He did a fancy step or two. Says he, "I think I'll go with you --"

... Two moons, and we were baking in the straits at Singapore.

Around the world and back again; we saw it all. The mist and rain

In England and the dry old plain from Needles to Berdoo.

We kept a-rambling all the time. I rustled grub, he rustled rhyme --

Blind baggage, hoof it, ride or climb -- we always put it through.

Just for a con I'd like to know (yes, he crossed over long ago;

And he was right, believe me, Bo!) if somewhere in the South,

Down where the clouds lie on the sea, he found his sweet Penelope,

With buds of roses in her hair and kisses on her mouth.

--From: http://www.erbzine.com/mag0/0003.html#2.%20OUT%20THERE%20SOMEWHERE%20by%20Henry%20Herbert

Click on the link for page number references relating each stanza's appearance in "The Mucker", or for more of ERB's favorite poetry, compiled by Bill Hillman.