i was once a vers libre bard
August 31, 2024 12:52 PM Subscribe
the coming of archy I was once a vers libre bard
but i died and my soul went
into the body of a cockroach
it has given me a new outlook on life
Don Marquis describes: He would climb painfully upon the framework of the machine and cast himself with all his force upon a key, head downward, and his weight and the impact of the blow were just sufficient to operate the machine, one slow letter after another. He could not work the capital letters, and he had a great deal of difficulty operating the mechanism that shifts the paper so that a fresh line may be started. We never saw a cockroach work so hard or perspire so freely in all our lives before. After about an hour of this frightfully difficult literary labor he fell to the floor exhausted, and we saw him creep feebly into a nest of the poems which are always there in profusion.
Congratulating ourself that we had left a sheet of paper in the machine the night before so that all this work had not been in vain, we made an examination, and this is what we found.
full text of archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis
Introduction to The Best of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis, by E. B. White (1950)
I have been a promising young man in literary circles for at least thirty years.
Don Marquis describes: He would climb painfully upon the framework of the machine and cast himself with all his force upon a key, head downward, and his weight and the impact of the blow were just sufficient to operate the machine, one slow letter after another. He could not work the capital letters, and he had a great deal of difficulty operating the mechanism that shifts the paper so that a fresh line may be started. We never saw a cockroach work so hard or perspire so freely in all our lives before. After about an hour of this frightfully difficult literary labor he fell to the floor exhausted, and we saw him creep feebly into a nest of the poems which are always there in profusion.
Congratulating ourself that we had left a sheet of paper in the machine the night before so that all this work had not been in vain, we made an examination, and this is what we found.
full text of archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis
Introduction to The Best of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis, by E. B. White (1950)
I have been a promising young man in literary circles for at least thirty years.
I also grew up reading my parents' copies of Archy and Mehitabel paper backs. Toujours gai, toujours gai!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:14 PM on August 31, 2024 [10 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:14 PM on August 31, 2024 [10 favorites]
Wow, I haven't thought of Archy and Mehitabel in years! I somehow got a battered old hardback as a teenager and it surely was influential. This reminds me that I should find another battered old copy and leave it somewhere conspicuous that my kids can discover it.
an occasional fish head and liberty is all i askposted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 1:21 PM on August 31, 2024 [7 favorites]
Us old folks know the delight that is Archy and Mehitabel.
It's been quite a while since I've read the whole thing, and I'd forgotten how the wonderfully deep the characters Don Marquis has shaped with the little roach of many maxims and the cat who is the current incarnation of Cleopatra. My dad used to read Archy's poetry out loud, and there was so much that went over my head as a kid--just a story about a bug and a cat. It was in the house, so I read it as a teen with more understanding but rediscovering it as a young adult just blew my mind! So many layers of meaning.
Two literary geniuses that somewhat defined my childhood were Don Marquis and Walt Kelly with his little possum Pogo. Both quirky, both deeper than expected.
It's good you posted this, 'cause the youngins need to see it. I'm tickled to be able to reread it.
wotthehell, wotthehell
posted by BlueHorse at 1:46 PM on August 31, 2024 [17 favorites]
It's been quite a while since I've read the whole thing, and I'd forgotten how the wonderfully deep the characters Don Marquis has shaped with the little roach of many maxims and the cat who is the current incarnation of Cleopatra. My dad used to read Archy's poetry out loud, and there was so much that went over my head as a kid--just a story about a bug and a cat. It was in the house, so I read it as a teen with more understanding but rediscovering it as a young adult just blew my mind! So many layers of meaning.
Two literary geniuses that somewhat defined my childhood were Don Marquis and Walt Kelly with his little possum Pogo. Both quirky, both deeper than expected.
It's good you posted this, 'cause the youngins need to see it. I'm tickled to be able to reread it.
wotthehell, wotthehell
posted by BlueHorse at 1:46 PM on August 31, 2024 [17 favorites]
I have no doubt that discovering these books in my early teens had a lot to do with my love of good writing and nuanced turns of phrase.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:54 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:54 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
"The Song of Mehitabel"...yesh.
posted by aleph at 2:13 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by aleph at 2:13 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
i have loved archy and mehitabel for a very long time. i got a used copy of the complete a and m a couple of years ago and re-read it. it's good poetry, sometimes very deep, occasionally very dark (remember when mehitabel's kittens disappeared?).
archy made me feel that I, a mere potato beetle from the midwest, could also be a writer.
posted by Well I never at 2:18 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
archy made me feel that I, a mere potato beetle from the midwest, could also be a writer.
posted by Well I never at 2:18 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
and mehitabel taught me that to be an old bawd breaking all the rules was a great thing.
posted by Well I never at 2:18 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
posted by Well I never at 2:18 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
strange to say, i learned to write ballades from a cockroach
posted by graywyvern at 2:22 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by graywyvern at 2:22 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
coarse
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed
posted by humbug at 2:27 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed
posted by humbug at 2:27 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
Archy and Mehitabel, Ogden Nash's poems, and Kay Thompson's Eloise books were formative literary influences on me as a child. God bless my mother.
posted by Kat Allison at 2:53 PM on August 31, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by Kat Allison at 2:53 PM on August 31, 2024 [9 favorites]
i'm a big fan of archy and mehitabel
and i have a theory that a lot of peoples writing style
on the internet
is inspired by archy
mine definitely is
i didnt use upper case
from 1994 to 2010
(e e cummings didn't help either)
posted by mmoncur at 3:03 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
and i have a theory that a lot of peoples writing style
on the internet
is inspired by archy
mine definitely is
i didnt use upper case
from 1994 to 2010
(e e cummings didn't help either)
posted by mmoncur at 3:03 PM on August 31, 2024 [8 favorites]
too on the nose.
posted by metametamind at 3:51 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by metametamind at 3:51 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
Grateful to operate a camera for many years and have interesting things put into my life. No, I never heard of these characters before this evening, but I’m happy you’ve brought them, Gale McNeeley - https://youtu.be/0zhFaz-Tnrk?feature=shared
posted by richeditor at 4:23 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by richeditor at 4:23 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
Thank you for posting! Needs toujoursgai tag.
posted by paduasoy at 4:28 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 4:28 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
(e e cummings didn't help either)
When I finally came across ee cummings I assumed he was being parodied by Marquis? Isn't he the vers libre poet that Archy is a mockery of?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:30 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
When I finally came across ee cummings I assumed he was being parodied by Marquis? Isn't he the vers libre poet that Archy is a mockery of?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:30 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
I introduced the books to a NY artiste once years ago. He got very excited and talked about basing a musical on it. We fell out of touch and I've not seen anything about it i the trades. Interesting idea, though.
And seconding Chavenet' enthusiasm for the illustrator Harriman, no slouch by any means, he responsible for Krazy Kat on paper and on celluloid even into the era of sound.
posted by BWA at 4:44 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
And seconding Chavenet' enthusiasm for the illustrator Harriman, no slouch by any means, he responsible for Krazy Kat on paper and on celluloid even into the era of sound.
posted by BWA at 4:44 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
When I finally came across ee cummings I assumed he was being parodied by Marquis? Isn't he the vers libre poet that Archy is a mockery of?
This had never occurred to me before but I like it.
Except Cummings wasn't always, or wasn't really, a verse libre poet. I remember my amazement, after reading some of his poetry for a number of years in my callow youth, when I realized that, say, I Carry Your Heart is a sonnet. A number of his poems are. I am no Cummings expert, a mere dabbler, and would love to hear from someone who knows more.
posted by Well I never at 4:47 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
This had never occurred to me before but I like it.
Except Cummings wasn't always, or wasn't really, a verse libre poet. I remember my amazement, after reading some of his poetry for a number of years in my callow youth, when I realized that, say, I Carry Your Heart is a sonnet. A number of his poems are. I am no Cummings expert, a mere dabbler, and would love to hear from someone who knows more.
posted by Well I never at 4:47 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
I think the Onion and its suite of column-writing characters owes something to Don Marquis.
posted by humbug at 5:12 PM on August 31, 2024
posted by humbug at 5:12 PM on August 31, 2024
Mel Brooks wrote the book. I am not kidding.
posted by bq at 5:20 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by bq at 5:20 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
warty bliggins, the toad, might remind you of someone...
posted by jim in austin at 5:40 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 5:40 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
Every time I get out my ancient Medalta bean pot to make homemade baked beans, Don Marquis’ baked bean recipe sings in my head. It is a thing of beauty.
posted by fimbulvetr at 5:43 PM on August 31, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 5:43 PM on August 31, 2024 [6 favorites]
I got mum and dad's old copies off the bookshelf. UK editions from 1961 and 1963. So Marquis was having a revival (or perhaps a long-running success?) even then!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:48 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:48 PM on August 31, 2024 [2 favorites]
Grabbed the used 1960s copy of "the lives and times of archy & mehitabel" off of my own bookshelf (a former school library book, card and all), complete with George Herriman's illustrations. Still a classic, and I'm glad to be reminded of it.
(And my goodness, that site is such a piece of the Old Web and I really do miss the days when more sites were someone's collection of something they were passionate about.)
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 6:25 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
(And my goodness, that site is such a piece of the Old Web and I really do miss the days when more sites were someone's collection of something they were passionate about.)
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 6:25 PM on August 31, 2024 [4 favorites]
(From the recipe linked to by fimbulvetr) I think "just the right kinds of salt pork" would be a great user name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:53 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:53 PM on August 31, 2024 [1 favorite]
I heard about Archy and Mehitabel from my father, one of whose last cats he named Mehitabel. It was perfect for me, a high school student who'd just discovered modernist poetry and vers libre. The skill of the poetry is, to me, undeniable, but there's just such beauty in both the mundanity, as well as the occasional moments of depth and weight. Seeing this post put a huge smile on my face, and here I am, with my archy and mehitabel books (archy and mehitable, and archyology i and ii)* paging through, wondering if any of these might be interesting to my students.
Hands down, my favorite poem, though, is the one where archy finds the typewriter still has caps lock on, and immediately starts writing in rhyme, exhulting over his ability to once again write "properly" until mehitabel smacks the side of the typewriting, and the caps lock is undone. Dejected, archy immediately falls back into free verse.
*These books are here with me in Japan, having been brought from the States. There is a pretty hellish triage that happens with suitcases and weight allowances, all of which to say, if I've got a book with me that I intentionally brought back here, it had to mean enough to me to justify that space and weight in the luggage, and these are that.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:04 PM on August 31, 2024 [11 favorites]
Hands down, my favorite poem, though, is the one where archy finds the typewriter still has caps lock on, and immediately starts writing in rhyme, exhulting over his ability to once again write "properly" until mehitabel smacks the side of the typewriting, and the caps lock is undone. Dejected, archy immediately falls back into free verse.
*These books are here with me in Japan, having been brought from the States. There is a pretty hellish triage that happens with suitcases and weight allowances, all of which to say, if I've got a book with me that I intentionally brought back here, it had to mean enough to me to justify that space and weight in the luggage, and these are that.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:04 PM on August 31, 2024 [11 favorites]
I found archy’s life of mehitabel at an Oxfam shop while in the UK on business and it felt so incredibly neat to find such a brilliant book for 1 pound next to a bunch of very typical Oxfam fare my favorite lines are
you thought i was only
an archy
but i am more than that
i am anarchy
That my personal statement of strength now.
If I could put up a picture I would, it’s a really special book.
posted by MirJoy at 7:14 PM on August 31, 2024 [7 favorites]
you thought i was only
an archy
but i am more than that
i am anarchy
That my personal statement of strength now.
If I could put up a picture I would, it’s a really special book.
posted by MirJoy at 7:14 PM on August 31, 2024 [7 favorites]
I grew up on this. Went looking for the part that includes "toujours gai" from the song of mehitabel. This passage often comes to mind these days.
i m toujours gai toujours gaiposted by Peach at 7:18 PM on August 31, 2024 [9 favorites]
i know that i am bound
for a journey down the sound
in the midst of a refuse mound
but wotthehell wotthehell
oh i should worry and fret
death and i will coquette
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai
Toujours gai
My youth I shall never forget
But there's nothing I really regret
The years I have poured down the drain
Have sparkled like gold in champagne
It's cheerio my dearrio
Prance and pirouette
It's cheerio my dearrio
There's a life in me yet
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
I sing all my troubles away
posted by kaibutsu at 8:12 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
My youth I shall never forget
But there's nothing I really regret
The years I have poured down the drain
Have sparkled like gold in champagne
It's cheerio my dearrio
Prance and pirouette
It's cheerio my dearrio
There's a life in me yet
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
I sing all my troubles away
posted by kaibutsu at 8:12 PM on August 31, 2024 [3 favorites]
That’s the one! Thanks, mediareport!
posted by Ghidorah at 1:28 AM on September 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 1:28 AM on September 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
When my wife has trouble falling asleep, she likes for me to read to her "mehitabel dances with boreas". It has a nice rhythm which lulls her to sleep every time.
posted by Nyrath at 3:39 AM on September 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Nyrath at 3:39 AM on September 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
"ballade of the under side
by archy
the roach that scurries
skips and runs
may read far more than those
that fly
i know what family skeletons
within your closets
swing and dry
not that i ever
play the spy
but as in corners
dim i bide
i can t dodge knowledge
though i try
i see things from
the under side
the lordly ones the
haughty ones
with supercilious
heads held high
the up stage stiff
pretentious guns
miss much that meets
my humbler eye
not that i meddle
perk or pry
but i m too small
to feel great pride
and as the pompous world
goes by
i see things from
the under side
above me wheel
the stars and suns
but humans shut
me from the sky
you see their eyes as pure
as nuns
i see their wayward
feet and sly
i own and own it with
a sigh
my point of view
is somewhat wried
i am a pessimistic
guy
i see things from
the under side
l envoi
prince ere you pull a bluff
and lie
before you fake
and play the snide
consider whether
archy s nigh
i see things from
the under side"
--Don Marquis
posted by graywyvern at 6:46 AM on September 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
by archy
the roach that scurries
skips and runs
may read far more than those
that fly
i know what family skeletons
within your closets
swing and dry
not that i ever
play the spy
but as in corners
dim i bide
i can t dodge knowledge
though i try
i see things from
the under side
the lordly ones the
haughty ones
with supercilious
heads held high
the up stage stiff
pretentious guns
miss much that meets
my humbler eye
not that i meddle
perk or pry
but i m too small
to feel great pride
and as the pompous world
goes by
i see things from
the under side
above me wheel
the stars and suns
but humans shut
me from the sky
you see their eyes as pure
as nuns
i see their wayward
feet and sly
i own and own it with
a sigh
my point of view
is somewhat wried
i am a pessimistic
guy
i see things from
the under side
l envoi
prince ere you pull a bluff
and lie
before you fake
and play the snide
consider whether
archy s nigh
i see things from
the under side"
--Don Marquis
posted by graywyvern at 6:46 AM on September 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
Thank you for reminding me of these long standing friends. Finally, they did get their Immortality!
jamais triste <3
posted by tardigrade at 4:13 PM on September 1, 2024 [3 favorites]
jamais triste <3
posted by tardigrade at 4:13 PM on September 1, 2024 [3 favorites]
As kids my brother and I were taken
by my mother
to the bookmobile every Friday,
when everyone else in our small town
was at the high School Football game.
The driver was a hippie who didn't care
what I read
and since I got things
from the "humor" section,
my mother didn't notice, either.
I read S.J. Perelman
Ogden Nash, P.G. Wodehouse
and "archy and mehitabel".
Later on, I bought the book at a second-hand shop, beautifully bound with creamy yellow pages and crisp versions of the Herriman illustrations and it was a prize possession. I think I need to search my house and find it. I love many of the poems but "freddy the rat perishes" is my favorite.
posted by acrasis at 9:59 AM on September 2, 2024 [3 favorites]
by my mother
to the bookmobile every Friday,
when everyone else in our small town
was at the high School Football game.
The driver was a hippie who didn't care
what I read
and since I got things
from the "humor" section,
my mother didn't notice, either.
I read S.J. Perelman
Ogden Nash, P.G. Wodehouse
and "archy and mehitabel".
Later on, I bought the book at a second-hand shop, beautifully bound with creamy yellow pages and crisp versions of the Herriman illustrations and it was a prize possession. I think I need to search my house and find it. I love many of the poems but "freddy the rat perishes" is my favorite.
posted by acrasis at 9:59 AM on September 2, 2024 [3 favorites]
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