{"id":6126,"date":"2013-09-07T08:32:50","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T12:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2013-09-07T08:32:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T12:32:50","slug":"three-archy-poems-by-don-marquis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/three-archy-poems-by-don-marquis\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Archy poems by Don Marquis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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pete the parrot and shakespeare<\/h2>\n

\"Archy<\/a>i got acquainted with
\na parrot named pete recently
\nwho is an interesting bird
\npete says he used
\nto belong to the fellow
\nthat ran the mermaid tavern
\nin london then i said
\nyou must have known
\nshakespeare know him said pete
\npoor mutt i knew him well
\nhe called me pete and i called him
\nbill but why do you say poor mutt
\nwell said pete bill was a
\ndisappointed man and was always
\nboring his friends about what
\nhe might have been and done
\nif he only had a fair break
\ntwo or three pints of sack
\nand sherris and the tears
\nwould trickle down into his
\nbeard and his beard would get
\nsoppy and wilt his collar
\ni remember one night when
\nbill and ben jonson and
\nfrankie beaumont
\nwere sopping it up<\/p>\n

here i am ben says bill
\nnothing but a lousy playwright
\nand with anything like luck
\nin the breaks i might have been
\na fairly decent sonnet writer
\ni might have been a poet
\nif i had kept away from the theatre
\nyes says ben i ve often
\nthought of that bill
\nbut one consolation is
\nyou are making pretty good money
\nout of the theatre<\/p>\n

money money says bill what the hell
\nis money what i want is to be
\na poet not a business man
\nthese damned cheap shows
\ni turn out to keep the
\ntheatre running break my heart
\nslap stick comedies and
\nblood and thunder tragedies
\nand melodramas say i wonder
\nif that boy heard you order
\nanother bottle frankie
\nthe only compensation is that i get
\na chance now and then
\nto stick in a little poetry
\nwhen nobody is looking
\nbut hells bells that isn t
\nwhat i want to do
\ni want to write sonnets and
\nsongs and spenserian stanzas
\nand i might have done it too
\nif i hadn t got
\ninto this frightful show game
\nbusiness business business
\ngrind grind grind
\nwhat a life for a man
\nthat might have been a poet<\/p>\n

well says frankie beaumont
\nwhy don t you cut it bill
\ni can t says bill
\ni need the money i ve got
\na family to support down in
\nthe country well says frankie
\nanyhow you write pretty good
\nplays bill any mutt can write
\nplays for this london public
\nsays bill if he puts enough
\nmurder in them what they want
\nis kings talking like kings
\nnever had sense enough to talk
\nand stabbings and stranglings
\nand fat men making love
\nand clowns basting each
\nother with clubs and cheap puns
\nand off color allusions to all
\nthe smut of the day oh i know
\nwhat the low brows want
\nand i give it to them<\/p>\n

\"Herrimann<\/a>well says ben jonson
\ndon t blubber into the drink
\nbrace up like a man
\nand quit the rotten business
\ni can t i can t says bill
\ni ve been at it too long i ve got to
\nthe place now where i can t
\nwrite anything else
\nbut this cheap stuff
\ni m ashamed to look an honest
\nyoung sonneteer in the face
\ni live a hell of a life i do
\nthe manager hands me some mouldy old
\nmanuscript and says
\nbill here s a plot for you
\nthis is the third of the month
\nby the tenth i want a good
\nscript out of this that we
\ncan start rehearsals on
\nnot too big a cast
\nand not too much of your
\ndamned poetry either
\nyou know your old
\nfamiliar line of hokum
\nthey eat up that falstaff stuff
\nof yours ring him in again
\nand give them a good ghost
\nor two and remember we gotta
\nhave something dick burbage can get
\nhis teeth into and be sure
\nand stick in a speech
\nsomewhere the queen will take
\nfor a personal compliment and if
\nyou get in a line or two somewhere
\nabout the honest english yeoman
\nit s always good stuff
\nand it s a pretty good stunt
\nbill to have the heavy villain
\na moor or a dago or a jew
\nor something like that and say
\ni want another
\ncomic welshman in this
\nbut i don t need to tell
\nyou bill you know this game
\njust some of your ordinary
\nhokum and maybe you could
\nkill a little kid or two a prince
\nor something they like
\na little pathos along with
\nthe dirt now you better see burbage
\ntonight and see what he wants
\nin that part oh says bill
\nto think i am
\ndebasing my talents with junk
\nlike that oh god what i wanted
\nwas to be a poet
\nand write sonnet serials
\nlike a gentleman should<\/p>\n

well says i pete
\nbill s plays are highly
\nesteemed to this day
\nis that so says pete
\npoor mutt little he would
\ncare what poor bill wanted
\nwas to be a poet<\/p>\n

archy<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

archy confesses<\/h2>\n

\"Archy\"<\/a>coarse
\njacosity
\ncatches the crowd
\nshakespeare
\nand i
\nare often
\nlow browed<\/p>\n

the fish wife
\ncurse
\nand the laugh
\nof the horse
\nshakespeare
\nand i
\nare frequently
\ncoarse<\/p>\n

aesthetic
\nexcuses
\nin bill s behalf
\nare adduced
\nto refine
\nbig bill s
\ncoarse laugh<\/p>\n

but bill
\nhe would chuckle
\nto hear such guff
\nhe pulled
\nrough stuff
\nand he liked
\nrough stuff<\/p>\n

hoping you
\nare the same<\/p>\n

archy<\/p>\n

the old trouper<\/h2>\n

\"Mehitabel\"<\/a>i ran onto mehitabel again
\nlast evening
\nshe is inhabiting
\na decayed trunk
\nwhich lies in an alley
\nin greenwich village
\nin company with the
\nmost villainous tom cat
\ni have ever seen
\nbut there is nothing
\nwrong about the association
\narchy she told me
\nit is merely a plutonic
\nattachment
\nand the thing can be
\nbelieved for the tom
\nlooks like one of pluto s demons
\nit is a theatre trunk
\narchy mehitabel told me
\nand tom is an old theatre cat
\nhe has given his life
\nto the theatre
\nhe claims that richard
\nmansfield once
\nkicked him out of the way
\nand then cried because
\nhe had done it and
\npetted him
\nand at another time
\nhe says in a case
\nof emergency
\nhe played a bloodhound
\nin a production of
\nuncle tom s cabin
\nthe stage is not what it
\nused to be tom says
\nhe puts his front paw
\non his breast and says
\nthey don t have it any more
\nthey don t have it here
\nthe old troupers are gone
\nthere s nobody can troupe
\nany more
\nthey are all amateurs nowadays
\nthey haven t got it
\nhere
\nthere are only
\nfive or six of us oldtime
\ntroupers left
\nthis generation does not know
\nwhat stage presence is
\npersonality is what they lack
\npersonality
\nwhere would they get
\nthe training my old friends
\ngot in the stock companies
\ni knew mr booth very well
\nsays tom
\nand a law should be passed
\npreventing anybody else
\nfrom ever playing
\nin any play he ever
\nplayed in
\nthere was a trouper for you
\ni used to sit on his knee
\nand purr when i was
\na kitten he used to tell me
\nhow much he valued my opinion
\nfinish is what they lack
\nfinish
\nand they haven t got it
\nhere
\nand again he laid his paw
\non his breast
\ni remember mr daly very
\nwell too
\ni was with mr daly s company
\nfor several years
\nthere was art for you
\nthere was team work
\nthere was direction
\nthey knew the theatre
\nand they all had it
\nhere
\nfor two years mr daly
\nwould not ring up the curtain
\nunless i was in the
\nprompter s box
\nthey are amateurs nowadays
\nrank amateurs all of them
\nfor two seasons i played
\nthe dog in joseph
\njefferson s rip van winkle
\nit is true i never came
\non the stage
\nbut he knew i was just off
\nand it helped him
\n\"Herriman<\/a>i would like to see
\none of your modern
\ntheatre cats
\nact a dog so well
\nthat it would convince
\na trouper like jo jefferson
\nbut they haven t got it
\nnowadays
\nthey haven t got it
\nhere
\njo jefferson had it he had it
\nhere
\ni come of a long line
\nof theatre cats
\nmy grandfather was with forrest
\nhe had it he was a real trouper
\nmy grandfather said
\nhe had a voice
\nthat used to shake
\nthe ferryboats
\non the north river
\nonce he lost his beard
\nand my grandfather
\ndropped from the
\nfly gallery and landed
\nunder his chin
\nand played his beard
\nfor the rest of the act
\nyou don t see any theatre
\ncats that could do that
\nnowadays
\nthey haven t got it they
\nhaven t got it
\nhere
\nonce i played the owl
\nin modjeska s production
\nof macbeth
\ni sat above the castle gate
\nin the murder scene
\nand made my yellow
\neyes shine through the dusk
\nlike an owl s eyes
\nmodjeska was a real
\ntrouper she knew how to pick
\nher support i would like
\nto see any of these modern
\ntheatre cats play the owl s eyes
\nto modjeska s lady macbeth
\nbut they haven t got it nowadays
\nthey haven t got it
\nhere<\/p>\n

mehitabel he says
\nboth our professions
\nare being ruined
\nby amateurs<\/p>\n

archy
\n~~~~~<\/strong><\/p>\n

The poems by Don Marquis were written between 1916 and 1921. They are indicative of his style and show both free and rhyming verse. More information was posted in my previous blog piece<\/a> about Marquis and his characters.<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that while they appear odd at first read, you quickly become accustomed to the style and learn to read them quickly, despite the lack of punctuation and capitals.<\/p>\n

You also find in “pete the parrot” what would today be politically incorrect or even racially offensive wording. I have run into similar wording in some of the sheet music I’ve collected from the 1920s. As H2G2<\/a> notes about the era, “Racism, jingoism and simple desperation were endemic throughout most of the world.” I don’t believe Marquis was himself a racist, but rather that he used archy to comment ironically on racism and other social ills of his day throughout his career, as he does here. In another example<\/a>, archy writes scathingly:<\/p>\n

it must be the same way
\nwith a colored man who is being lynched
\nhe must be grateful that he is being lynched
\nin a land of freedom and liberty<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All three poems appear in his first collection, “archy & mehitabel<\/em>,” published in 1927, in the omnibus collection of his three books, “the life and times of archy and mehitabel<\/em>,” (Doubleday Doran, 1935) and in The Best of Archy and Mehitabel<\/em> (Everyman’s Library, 2011), but \u00a0none appear in The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel<\/em> (Penguin Classics, 2006).<\/p>\n

The Old Trouper was copied from The Crushed Tragedian<\/a>‘s blog site, Pete the Parrot from Well.com<\/a>. Archy Confesses was copied from Poem du Jour<\/a>. I checked the originals to make sure the poems were both complete and had the proper spacing.<\/p>\n

I believe all are now in the public domain. I hope to reprint a few more over the next month to highlight Marquis’s craft and talent, as well as his take on some social issues that are still with us. Bob Hicks, writing in the Ashland Report<\/a>, says:<\/p>\n

If The Metamorphosis<\/em> is a comic nightmare vision of the dehumanizing essence of modern culture, Archy and Mehitabel<\/em> is a sadly knowing comic ode to optimism, and as such, a much more American tale. Life on Shinbone Alley, the little fetid corner of New York where Archy and his pals hang out, has a mythic quality, and the myth that comes to mind is Sisyphus: always reaching for the top, always falling back into the same old muck, always dusting off and starting the journey again. For Mehitabel the sensualist, hope is just another alley cat away. For Archy the world-wise, despair and joy are almost the same thing, and like a Beckett character but with a good deal more joie de vivre, he can\u2019t go on, yet on he goes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Herriman cartoons are from various websites and not specific to the poems here, although they were used to illustrate other Archy poems by Marquis. Click on them to see more of his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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pete the parrot and shakespeare i got acquainted with a parrot named pete recently who is an interesting bird pete says he used to belong to the fellow that ran the mermaid tavern in london then i said you must have known shakespeare know him said pete poor mutt i knew him well he called me pete and i called him bill but why do you say poor mutt well said pete bill was a disappointed man and was always boring his friends about what he might have been and done if he only had a fair break two or \u2026…… click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,8,222,263,72],"tags":[226,620,137,134],"class_list":["post-6126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-books","category-humour","category-writing-2","category-books-by-the-bedside","tag-arts-2","tag-books","tag-literature","tag-writing"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":26397,"today_views":1},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6136,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions\/6136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}