"The Face upon the Barroom Floor", aka "The Face on the Floor" and "The Face on the Barroom Floor", is a poem written by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy

Hugh Antoine d'Arcy

Hugh Antoine d'Arcy was a French-born poet and writer and a pioneer executive in the American motion picture industry. He is best known for his 1887 poem, The Face upon the Floor...

 in 1887 and first published in the New York Dispatch

New York Dispatch

The New York Dispatch also called the New York Weekly Dispatch and the Weekly Dispatch, was a newspaper published in New York City....

.

According to d'Arcy, the poem was inspired by an actual happening at Joe Smith's saloon at Fourth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan. When it was reprinted in a d'Arcy collection, he wrote a preface explaining the confusion of the two titles:

My only excuse for offering this little book is the fact that my friends want to get a few stories out of my scrap book--so here they are. One popular mistake I desire to rectify. When I wrote "The Face Upon the Floor," which was in 1887, I had no idea that it would receive the favor which it has. The popularity of the story induced the publisher of a Bowery Song Sheet to issue a song which was a bad plagiarism and, to get away from my copyright, called it "The Face on the Barroom Floor." Strange to say, the public has accepted the latter title, which is not correct. This book contains the true and original story. D'Arcy.

Written in ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 form, the poem tells of an artist ruined by love; having lost his beloved Madeline to another man, he has turned to drink. Entering a bar

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

, the artist tells his story to the bartender and to the assembled crowd. He then offers to sketch Madeline's face on the floor of the bar but falls dead in the middle of his work. Here is the full text:

'Twas a balmy summer evening

And a goodly crowd was there,

That well nigh filled Joe's barroom

At the corner of the square.

As songs and witty stories

Came through the open door,

A vagabond crept slowly in

And posed upon the floor.

“Where did it come from?” someone said,

“The wind has blown it in.”

“What does it want?” another cried,

“Some whiskey, rum or gin?”

Here Toby, sic’ em,

If your stomach is equal to the work,

I wouldn't touch him with a fork,

He's filthy as a Turk.

This badinage the poor wretch took with stoical good grace.

In fact, he smiled as though he thought

He had struck the proper place.

Come boys, I know there's kindly hearts

Among so good a crowd;

To be in such good company

Would make a deacon proud.

Give me a drink, that’s what I want.

I'm out of funds you know, when I had cash to treat the gang,

This lad was never slow. What? You laugh as though you think,

This pocket never held a sou,

I once was fixed as well, my boys,

As any of you.

There thanks, that’s braced me nicely.

God Bless you one and all. Next time I pass this good saloon,

I'll make another call.

Give you a song? No, I can't do that.

My singing days are past.

My voice is cracked, my throat's worn out,

And my lungs are going fast.

Aye, give me another whiskey and I'll tell you what to do

I'll tell you a funny story and in fact I'll promise two.

That I was ever a decent man,

Not one of you would think,

But I was, some four or five years back.

Say, give me another drink.

Fill 'er up, Joe, I want to put some life

Into this old frame.

Such little drinks, to a bum like me

are miserably tame.

Five fingers, that's the scene, and corking and whiskey too,

Well, here's luck boys, and landlord,

My best respects to you.

You’ve treated me pretty kindly,

And I'd like to tell you how,

I came to be this dirty sap, you see before you now.

As I told you once, I was a man

With muscle, frame and health,

But for a blunder, ought have made considerable wealth.

I was a painter, not one that daubed on bricks or wood,

But an artist, and for my age I was rated pretty good,

I worked hard at my canvas, and bidding fair to rise,

And gradually I saw, the star of fame before my eyes.

I made a picture, perhaps you've seen,

It's called the “Chase of Fame.”

It brought me fifteen hundred pounds

And added to my name.

It was then I met a woman, now come the funny part;

With eyes that petrified my brain, and sank into my heart.

Why don't you laugh it's funny, that the vagabond you see

could ever have a woman and expect her love for me.

But it was so, and for a month or two, her smiles were freely given,

And when her loving lips touched mine, I thought I was in heaven.

Boys did you ever see a girl, for whom your soul you'd give,

With a form like Venus De Milo

Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milos , better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly...

, too beautiful to live,

With eyes that would beat the Koh-i-noor

Koh-i-Noor

The Kōh-i Nūr which means "Mountain of Light" in Persian, also spelled Koh-i-noor, Koh-e Noor or Koh-i-Nur, is a 105 carat diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Kōh-i Nūr originated in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India along with its double, the Darya-ye Noor...

,

And a wealth of chestnut hair?

If so, it was she, for boys there never was, another half so fair.

I was working on a portrait,

One afternoon in May,

Of a fair haired boy, a friend of mine,

Who lived across the way.

My Madeline admired him,

And much to my surprise,

She said she'd like to know the lad,

Who had such dreamy eyes.

She didn't take long to find him,

Before the month had flown,

My friend had stolen my darling,

And I was left alone.

And ere a year of misery had passed above my head.

That jewel I treasured so, had tarnished and was dead.

That's why I took to drink boys. Why, I never see you smile,

I thought you'd be amused boys, and laughing all the while.

Why, what's the matter friend? There's a teardrop in your eye.

Come, laugh like me. It's only babes and women that should cry.

Say boys, if you give me just another whiskey and I'll be glad,

I'll draw right here the picture, of the face that drove me mad.

Give me that piece of chalk with which you mark the baseball score;

You shall see the lovely Madeline upon the barroom floor.

Another drink and with chalk in hand, the vagabond began,

To sketch a face that well might buy the soul of any man.

Then, as he placed another lock upon that shapely head,

With a fearful shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture — dead!

Adaptations and cultural legacy

Keystone Studios

Keystone Studios

Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...

 used the poem as the basis for a 1914 film of the same name

The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914 film)

The Face on the Bar Room Floor is a short film written and directed by Charles Chaplin in 1914. Chaplin stars in this film, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.-Synopsis:...

 starring Charles Chaplin.

In Mad

Mad (magazine)

Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...

#10 (April 1954), the poem was illustrated by Jack Davis

Jack Davis (cartoonist)

Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...

 and Basil Wolverton

Basil Wolverton

Basil Wolverton was an American cartoonist, illustrator, comic book writer-artist and professed "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet", whose many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad.His unique, humorously grotesque drawings have elicited a...

. The poem was put to song by country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 stars Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

 for his 1959 Blood on the Saddle album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 and Hank Snow

Hank Snow

Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...

 on his Tales of the Yukon album (1968). The poem was the inspiration for a painting

The Face on the Barroom Floor (painting)

The Face on the Barroom Floor is a painting on the floor of the Teller House Bar in Central City, Colorado, United States. It was painted in 1936 by Herndon Davis.-Story of the painting:...

 in the Teller House Bar in Central City, Colorado

Central City, Colorado

Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...

, and that painting inspired a chamber opera by Henry Mollicone

Henry Mollicone

Henry Mollicone is an American composer and musical instructor. He currently resides in Saratoga, California.-Career:Mollicone is known for his one-act operas, including Emperor Norton, Starbird, and The Mask of Evil. One of his most popular works is the one-act chamber opera The Face on the...

.

The title is mentioned in the lyrics of the Paul Francis Webster

Paul Francis Webster

Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...

's song "It's Harry I'm Planning to Marry" (from the 1953 Warner Bros. musical Calamity Jane), despite the fact that it is set in Deadwood

Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood is a city in South Dakota, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is named for the dead trees found in its gulch. The population was 1,270 according to a 2010 census...

, 1876, which actually predates the poem by some 11 years. The song is delivered by the character Katie Brown (Allyn McLerie

Allyn McLerie

Allyn Ann McLerie is a Canadian-born, Brooklyn-reared actress, singer and dancer who worked with most of Golden Age musical theatre's major choreographers, including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and Jerome Robbins.McLerie made her Broadway debut as a teenager in Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus...

), who sings:

He's the one that I truly adore.

I'm numb,

I succumb

When he renders the face on the barroom floor.

The poem is specifically referenced in the last verse of "The Mount Holyoke

Mount Holyoke College

Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...

 Drinking Song":

The face upon the barroom floor

I'd rather be than dull once more.

We're here,

Bring on the beer.

Who cares, we'll be sober tomorrow.

Here's a toast to old MHC!

See also

• The Face on the Bar Room Floor
  The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914 film)
  The Face on the Bar Room Floor is a short film written and directed by Charles Chaplin in 1914. Chaplin stars in this film, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.-Synopsis:...
  
  starring Charles Chaplin

Listen to

• The Face on the Barroom Floor read by Franklyn MacCormack

External links

• Image of the face with text of poem