Customer Reviews

The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel

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I read this book a few years ago and the memory of it sticks with me like few other works of poetry have. Originally, the writings in this collection were published as a column in a New York newspaper (not sure which one) in the early decades of the 20th century, but they really withstand the test of time. Archy is a cockroach who has to catapult himself head-first onto the keys of a typewriter letter by letter in order to record his meditations on life, literature, etc. This of course means that he can't hit the shift key simultaneously with other keys so everything is in lowercase letters, with most punctuation marks also being unavailable to him. He undergoes this painful process because he can't resist the urge to write, and I, for one, am very glad he made the sacrifice. Mehitabel is his cat friend who appears in some but not all of the poems. Don Marquis's columns from the perspective of Archy are very funny and I can't imagine anyone regretting getting a hold of this substantial collection. The intro by E.B. White is also very sensitive and perceptive, and overall I recommed this book with no reservations. Here is part of one of my favorite Archy poems:

oh deride not
the camel
if grief should
make him die
his ghost will come
to haunt you
with tears
in either eye
and the spirit of
a camel
in the midnight gloom
can be so very cheerless
as it wanders
round the room