I got this poem given to me for English homework when at school. Had to memorise it and get up in front of class and recite it.little bit of politix... woo
Spike Milligan
Unto Us...
Somewhere at some time
They committed themselves to me
And so, I was!
Small, but I WAS!
Tiny, in shape
Lusting to live
I hung in my pulsing cave.
Soon they knew of me
My mother —my father.
I had no say in my being
I lived on trust
And love
Tho' I couldn't think
Each part of me was saying
A silent 'Wait for me
I will bring you love!'
I was taken
Blind, naked, defenseless
By the hand of one
Whose good name
Was graven on a brass plate
in Wimpole Street,
and dropped on the sterile floor
of a foot operated plastic waste
bucket.
There was no Queens Counsel
To take my brief.
The cot I might have warmed
Stood in Harrod's shop window.
When my passing was told
My father smiled.
No grief filled my empty space.
My death was celebrated
With tickets to see Danny la Rue
Who was pretending to be a woman
Like my mother was.
nice story, thanks for thatI got this poem given to me for English homework when at school. Had to memorise it and get up in front of class and recite it.
I was renowned for not not doing homework. To the point that my name had been crossed out on the homework register. But it was such a good poem that when I took it home and read it, I had to read it again, and again, and again. So too right I memorised it. And its the last bit of homework I ever did.
@ballbag I have to ask, as you say it is such a good poem and you were given it as homework, (therefore the school thought so to)I got this poem given to me for English homework when at school. Had to memorise it and get up in front of class and recite it.
I was renowned for not not doing homework. To the point that my name had been crossed out on the homework register. But it was such a good poem that when I took it home and read it, I had to read it again, and again, and again. So too right I memorised it. And its the last bit of homework I ever did.
Yeah. That was my first exposure to Milligan. Think the teacher knew I'd appreciate the humour amidst all the darkness of it and I'd have binned a Shakespeare sonnet before looking at it. Ended up reading some of Spike's war memoirs not long after. He was a genius.@ballbag I have to ask, as you say it is such a good poem and you were given it as homework, (therefore the school thought so to)
The last line, you did realise it's a typical Milligan piss take. Deadly serious until the end.
And as an example I give you....
I fired an arrow into the air
It landed, I know not where
I lose all my bloody arrows that way.
I love WH Auden. You can almost smell the oil and the grit of the industrial backgrounds in his writing and the cadence is like machinery - to me anyway, I'm no expert!There Will Be No Peace
- WH Auden
Though mild clear weather
Smile again on the shore of your esteem
And its colours come back, the storm has changed you:
You will not forget, ever,
The darkness blotting out hope, the gale
Prophesying your downfall.
You must live with your knowledge.
Way back, beyond, outside of you are others,
In moonless absences you never heard of,
Who have certainly heard of you,
Beings of unknown number and gender:
And they do not like you.
What have you done to them?
Nothing? Nothing is not an answer:
You will come to believe - how can you help it? -
That you did, you did do something;
You will find yourself wishing you could make them laugh,
You will long for their friendship.
There will be no peace.
Fight back, then, with such courage as you have
And every unchivalrous dodge you know of,
Clear on your conscience on this:
Their cause, if they had one, is nothing to them now;
They hate for hate's sake.