BS: another report on the royals

Subject: BS: another report on the royals
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 May 04 - 10:19 PM

Last night I couldn't get to sleep, so picked up the book "archy and mehitabel" to help pass the time. In case you are not familiar with archy, archy was cockroach who had been a free-verse poet in a previous existence. archy inhabited the office of New York columnist Don Marquis, and at night he typed poems with fearsome effort by flinging himself headfirst onto the keys.

archy could not operated the shift key, so his poems have no capital letters. He did not bother with puncuation, so you will have to supply it yourself.

Anyway, I am passing on to you archy's report from a trip to london. (The bird with the top hat sounds like a member of the Drones Club, don't you think?}

archy goes abroad

london england
since i have been
residing in westminster
abbey i have learned
a secret that i desire
to pass on to the the psychic
sharps it is this
until the body of a human
being perishes utterly
the spirit is not
released from its vicinity
so long as there is any
form left in the physical
part of it the ghost can not go
to heaven or to hell
the ancient greeks
understood this and they
burned the body very often
so that the spirit could
get immediate release
the ancient egyptians
also knew it
but they reacted differently
to the knowledge
they embalmed the body
so that the form would
persist for thousands
of years and the ghost would have
to stick around for a time
here in westminster abbey
there are hundreds of
ghosts that have not yet
been released
some of them are able to wander
a few miles away
and some of them cannot
go futher than a few hundred
yards from the graves
where the bodies lie
for the most part they make
the best of it
they go out on little
excursions around london
and at night they sit on
their tombs and
tell their experiences
to each other
it is perhaps the most
exclusive club in london
henry the eighth came in
about three o'clock this morning
after rambling about piccadilly for a couple of hours
and i wish i had the
space to report in detail
the ensuing conversation
between him and charles dickens
now and then
a ghost can so influence
a living person that you
might say he had grabbed off
that living person s body and was
using it as his own
edward the black prince
was telling the gang
the other evening
that he had been leading the life
of a city clerk for three weeks
one of those birds
with a top hat and a sack coat
who come floating through
the mist and drizzle
with manuscript cases
under their arms looking unreal
even when they are not animated
by ghosts edward the black prince
who is known democratically
as neddie black here
says this clerk was a mild and
humble wight when he took
him over but he worked
him up to the place where
he assaulted a policeman
saturday night then left him flat
one the of most pathetic sights
however is to see the ghost of queen
victoria going out every
evening with the ghost
of a sceptre in her hand
to find mr lytton strachey
and bean him it seems she beans
him and beans him and he
never knows it
and every night on the stroke
of midnight elizabeth tudor
is married to walter raleigh by that
eminent clergyman
dr lawrence sterne
the gang pulls a good many
pageants which are written
by ben jonson but i think
the jinks will not be properly
planned and staged until
j m barrie gets here
this is the jolliest bunch
i have met in london
they have learned
since they passed over
that appearances and suety
pudding are not all they were
cracked up to be more anon from your little friend

                                  archy

Subject: RE: BS: another report on the royals
From: Peace
Date: 09 May 04 - 11:07 PM

Interesting. Did the author ever read any Nero Wolfe books? Archie was Wolfe's go-getter, and Archie sarcastically referred to an Aunt Mehitabel in one of the novels. Anyone know?

Subject: RE: BS: another report on the royals
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 May 04 - 11:12 PM

archy is one of my favorite characters ever. I'd like to see him in other plays than with Mehitabel (She reminds me too much of Scarlett O'Hara); archy would be interesting whether he starred as a 'boy' or as an old man or in between.