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 [7 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:14 PM on August 31 [7 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 [4 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 [9 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 [9 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 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:54 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
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 [2 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 [2 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 [5 favorites]
posted by Well I never at 2:18 PM on August 31 [5 favorites]
strange to say, i learned to write ballades from a cockroach
posted by graywyvern at 2:22 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
posted by graywyvern at 2:22 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
coarse
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed
posted by humbug at 2:27 PM on August 31
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed
posted by humbug at 2:27 PM on August 31
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 [3 favorites]
posted by Kat Allison at 2:53 PM on August 31 [3 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 [4 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 [4 favorites]
too on the nose.
posted by metametamind at 3:51 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
posted by metametamind at 3:51 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
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 [3 favorites]
posted by richeditor at 4:23 PM on August 31 [3 favorites]
Thank you for posting! Needs toujoursgai tag.
posted by paduasoy at 4:28 PM on August 31 [2 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 4:28 PM on August 31 [2 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
posted by humbug at 5:12 PM on August 31
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posted by chavenet at 1:11 PM on August 31 [7 favorites]