1. Appreciation of Modern
Literature:
SPIKE
MILLIGAN:
1918-2002
Comedian, writer, musician, playw
right, and POET!

2. Early Life & Career:
 Born in Ahmednagar, India on the 16th of April 1918
 Son of an Irish father, serving in the British Indian Army, and an
English mother
 Spent his early childhood in India, and later on in Burma
 During most of the 1930‟s and 40‟s he played as an amateur Jazz
vocalist and trumpeter, until he was called to service to fight in the
second World War
 He was hospitalized after fighting in Italy with a mortar wound to his
right leg and shell shock
 After being released from the hospital Milligan became a full time
musician, and later broke into radio with a relatively radical show
called The Goon Show

3. Career:
 After that show ended he had a number of acting parts in theatre, film
and television
 He became known for his ad-libbing, one of his most famous ad-lib
incidents occurred after he had been interviewed live on air by ABC. He
stuck around for the post-interview news broadcast during which he
continually interjected, adding his own name to the news items
 As a result of this he was banned from ABC and they created a new
policy wherein all live interviewees must leave the studio after the
interview has been conducted
 He continued to write various plays, poems, comedy acts and cartoons

4. Personal Life:
 Milligan suffered from sever Bipolar Disorder for most of his
life, having at least ten mental breakdowns
 The Prince of Wales was a noted fan of Spike Milligan, who caused a
stir by calling him a “little groveling bastard” on live TV in 1994. He
later faxed the prince saying „I suppose a knighthood is out of the
question?‟
 Milligan campaigned on environmental issues and animal rights, he
once attacked an art exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, breaking the
display with a hammer. The exhibit had various sea creatures
electrocuted as part of the exhibition. He was also a public opponent of
domestic violence
 Milligan had three children with his first wife June Marlow (divorced in
1960), one daughter with his second wife Patricia Ridgeway (marriage
ended in 1978 with her death), as well a son from an affair in 1975, and
reportedly another daughter born around the same time by a journalist

5. Death & Legacy:
 Milligan died from liver disease at the age of
83, on February 27th 2002
 He wrote his own obituary where he said
multiple times that he “wrote The Goon Show
and died”. He once said that he wanted his
headstone to be engraved with the words “I
told you I was ill” but the diocese wouldn‟t
allow that, so they made a compromise and
engraved it with the Irish translation
 In a BBC poll in 1999 Spike Milligan was voted
the “funniest person of the last 1000 years”, he
has several plaques dedicated to him and
multiple campaigns for erecting a statue of
him, in June 2006 Professor Richard Wiseman
identified Milligan as the writer of the world‟s
funniest joke, he has been portrayed twice in
movies

6. “The Soldiers at Lauro”:
Young are our dead The poem “The Soldiers at Lauro” was written by
Like babies they lie Milligan after having buried the dead following a direct hit
The wombs they blest once on his battery which left only two survivors. It is the first
Not healed dry
And yet - too soon serious poem written by him. Before this, all of Milligan‟s
Into each space poetry was written in the genre of “Nonsense Poetry”. This
A cold earth falls poem displays not only his feelings towards serving in the
On colder face.
military himself, but also foreshadows his spiral into
Quite still they lie
These fresh-cut reeds depression caused by Shell Shock.
Clutched in earth The simple writing style Milligan uses here is also
Like winter seeds very different from his other poetry. In this poem he uses
But they will not bloom
When called by spring very common, straightforward words to better display the
To burst with leaf event and convey the emotions that he felt while writing it.
And blossoming For example, the line “Quite still they lie”, while depicting a
They sleep on
great tragedy and loss of life, the vocabulary is understated
In silent dust
As crosses rot and could be referring to anything commonplace instead of
And helmets rust. the bodies of his friends.

7. “The Soldiers at Lauro”:
Young are our dead
The overall tone of this piece is one of despair, loss
Like babies they lie and finality. Milligan is grieving for the loss of these men all
The wombs they blest once the more because the were so young; “Like babies they
Not healed dry
lie”, and so promising; “Like winter seeds”. The finality is
And yet - too soon
Into each space seen in the last half of the poem when Milligan writes “But
A cold earth falls they will not bloom when called by spring”. There is a
On colder face. realization of the conclusiveness of death here that makes it
Quite still they lie
These fresh-cut reeds
all the more real to the reader, because the realization occurs
Clutched in earth in within the poem as opposed to being told of through the
Like winter seeds poem. In between the lines the poem is also about Milligan‟s
But they will not bloom
fear for himself that he, too, will die in the war. The rhyme
When called by spring
To burst with leaf scheme is “a b c b d e f e g h i h j k l k m n o n”.
And blossoming The poem has twenty sentences, all of them except 2
They sleep on are four syllables and under. The only two exceptions to this
In silent dust
As crosses rot
are the lines “The wombs they blest once” and “But they will
And helmets rust. not bloom”. These both have five syllables and the difference
doesn‟t disrupt the flow of the poem.

8. “The Soldiers at Lauro”:
Young are our dead
Literary Devices:
Like babies they lie
The wombs they blest once Alliteration: examples are in line 2 “Like babies the lie” and
Not healed dry lines 15 and 16 “burst with leaf and blossoming”.
And yet - too soon
Into each space
A cold earth falls Repetition: uses this only once in lines 7 and 8 “a cold
On colder face. earth falls on colder face”.
Quite still they lie
These fresh-cut reeds
Clutched in earth Metaphor: “Quite still they lie, these fresh cut reeds”.
Like winter seeds
But they will not bloom Simile: “Like babies they lie”, “Like winter seeds”.
When called by spring
To burst with leaf
And blossoming Anthropomorphism: “When called by spring”, “In silent
They sleep on dust”.
In silent dust
As crosses rot
And helmets rust.

9. “Unto Us”:
Somewhere at some time By the hand of one
They committed themselves to me Whose good name
And so, I was! Was graven on a brass plate
Small, but I WAS! in Wimpole Street,
Tiny, in shape and dropped on the sterile floor
Lusting to live of a foot operated plastic waste
I hung in my pulsing cave. bucket.
Soon they knew of me There was no Queens Counsel
My mother —my father. To take my brief.
I had no say in my being The cot I might have warmed
I lived on trust Stood in Harrod's shop window.
And love When my passing was told
Tho' I couldn't think My father smiled.
Each part of me was saying No grief filled my empty space.
A silent 'Wait for me My death was celebrated
I will bring you love!' With tickets to see Danny la Rue
I was taken Who was pretending to be a woman
Blind, naked, defenseless Like my mother was.

10. “Unto Us”:
 The poem “Unto Us” is about experiencing abortion from the perspective of the
unborn child. Abortion is one of the issues which Milligan campaigned
against, along with Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse. This is another of
Milligan‟s more serious poems, and it shows his feelings very clearly through
his diction and use of metaphor. The poem is written in blank verse which
means that it is not intended to have any rhyme scheme.
 The writing style is different from the first poem because in “Unto Us” Milligan
uses a larger variety of words and focuses on evoking emotion through the use
of words like „lusting‟ and „pulsing‟ as opposed to evoking emotion through the
actual event. The sentence structure is widely varied ranging from very short
lines of two syllables to the longest at twelve syllables. The lines generally get
longer as the poem develops.
 Unlike the other poem this doesn‟t seem to be connected with any actual event
in his life, but is just Milligan expressing his frustration about the issue of
abortion.

11. “Unto Us”:
 The tone throughout this poem is very obviously one of anger and bitterness.
Milligan attacks many of the different aspects of abortion as well as the people
involved, the parents and the doctors who perform the surgery. By giving
emotions to the unborn child and telling the story through his eyes Milligan
makes the poem personal to the reader. He also emphasizes the fact that the
child is alive “And so, I was! Small, but I WAS!”
 The feelings of betrayed trust overrun the first feelings of innocence and
love, the child, living on “trust”, “lusting to live”, is taken from the safety of his
mother‟s body. The doctor is seen by the child as someone whose good name is
engraved upon his nametag, but not shown through his work/actions.
 Milligan implies that the mother is less of a woman for having had an
abortion, “Who was pretending to be a woman, Like my mother was.” The
abortion is made all the worse by the fact that it seems unnecessary, even
considered a triviality by the parents, who celebrate the surgery by going to see
a concert.

12. “Unto Us”:
Literary Devices:
Repetition: “And so, I was! Small, but I WAS!”
Metaphor: “I hung in my pulsing cave”
Symbolism: “Whose good name was graven on a brass plate” (also irony)
Hyperbole: “dropped on the sterile floor of a foot operated plastic waste bucket.”
Irony: “who was pretending to be a woman, Like my mother was”

13. “Oojah-ka-Piv”:
The people who live
On the Oojah-ka-Piv This is an example of Milligan‟s
Stand around in bundles of nine nonsense poetry. Normally nonsense
poetry is written as a meaningful
When asked how it feels statement about politics or personal
They reply 'Curried Eels'! opinions under the cover of whimsical
Otherwise - everything's going fine! made-up words.
A good way to analyze nonsense poetry is to look at the specific words that are
used. For example, the title: Oojah-ka-Piv. The word “Oojah” is old fashioned
British slang that was first used in the army as a word that you can use in place of
any object when you can‟t remember it‟s name, similar to words like
whatchemacallit and doo-hickey. Most army slang terms of the time came from
India, but there are no words in the Indian language that are related to the word
“Oojah”, so it‟s origins are unknown. After it‟s army use the term became widely
used by civilians and changed into many different sayings, such as “Oojah-
capivvy” and “Ooja-ka-pivvi”, which came to mean that basically things were
alright.

14. “Oojah-ka-Piv”:
The people who live
From those definitions, Milligan is
On the Oojah-ka-Piv
writing about a place called “Oojah-ka-
Stand around in bundles of nine
Piv” that is either a place used as a
substitution for a place you can‟t
When asked how it feels
remember, or a place where things are
They reply 'Curried Eels'!
alright.
Otherwise - everything's going fine!
The second thing about this poem that is interesting is how the people always
stand around in bundles of nine, specifically. The number nine has many
meanings to it, a few of them are occult but most are mathematical. In math nine
is a unique number because the sum of all the digits which form it‟s multiples are
themselves always a multiple of nine, for example: 2 x 9 = 18 (1 + 8 = 9), 3 x 9 =
27 (2 + 7 = 9), 52843 x 9 = 475587 (4 + 7 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 7 = 36, and 3 + 6 = 9). In
the poem this might represent that the people who stand around in bundles of
nine all amount to the same number (quality, person). It is also the last of the
digits and represents and end or a conclusion.

15. “Oojah-ka-Piv”:
The people who live
The last mystery in this poem is how the
On the Oojah-ka-Piv
people who stand in bundles of nine
Stand around in bundles of nine
reply that it feels like “Curried Eels!”. I‟m
not sure whether they mean that living
When asked how it feels
in Oojah-ka-Piv feels like Curried Eels or
They reply 'Curried Eels'!
standing in groups of nine feels like
Otherwise - everything's going fine!
Curried Eels. In dreams eels represent
temptation, but that doesn‟t make much
sense when applied to a Curried Eel.
The rhyme scheme is “aab ccb”.

16. Spike Milligan: Famous Quotes
 “Money can‟t buy you friends, but you get a better
class of enemy.”
 “My father had a profound influence on me. He was
a lunatic.”
 “I‟m not afraid of dying, I just don‟t want to be there
when it happens!”
 “Listen, someone‟s screaming in agony- fortunately, I
speak it fluently.”
 “You can feel some of the people all of the time, and
all of the people some of the time, which is just long
enough to be president of the United States.”