Synopsis "Hidden Words" comprises Spike Milligan's three previously published books of poetry for adults: "Small Dreams of a Scorpion", "Open Heart University", and "The Mirror Running", together with many previously unpublished and recent poems. Reviews Great for any day As the poems in this book are from such a long period of time, they are also mentally very varied. All in all, it is indeed a book that will make you laugh and cry. Occasionally even both simultaneously. Some poems are beautifully simple and charming, while others may strive for more complexity of ideas and imagery. For Spike fans, a treasure to be valued, as it gives a very diverse picture of him. It is a good book to read in any state of mind - you are sure to find a thought or two. Small Dreams of a Scorpion Growing up in England Spike Milligan was a household name in comedy; crazy, insane comedy. In my early twenties I found a little orange poetry book - Small Dreams of a Scorpion, by Spike Milligan. I couldn't believe the same man I had laughed at all my growing years was the author. I couldn't put it down. This book will make you smile, it will make you cry and it will make you think. I have never stopped thinking of his words - I can feel them now Spike Milligan being serious? You are not serious! I knew Spike Milligan could make me laugh - I didn't know he could also make me cry. Spike is a poet who will make you think, make you see things in a way you never considered, and never thought possible - and if you have a heart, he will break it for you. 'Growing Up II' has to be one of the saddest poems ever written. If I had any influence at all, I'd make sure Spike's poetry was taught in every school in the land. THIS BOOK LIFTS THE SPIRIT WITH HUMOR AND SADNESS I HAVE READ THIS BOOK TIME AND TIME AGAIN, I HAVE FOUND IT INSPIRING. I WAS ABLE TO RELATE TO SPIKE AS I HAVE HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCES IN MY LIFE. SPIKE IS ABLE TO SHOW LIFE IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT THROUGH HIS WRITING. AS A PERSON WHOM HAS BEEN INSPIRED IN MY OWN WRITTING OF POETRY I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. How peotry should be..... I bought this book on the strength of one poem spike read on "an audience with......" on ITV. It managed to shut Rolf Harris up for a bit so u can imagine its brilliance, it went like so: This evening in the twilights gloom, A Butterfly flew in my room, Oh what beauty, Oh what grace, Who needs visitors from outer space? To my complete satisfaction the rest of the book was in a similarly superb, and digestable vein. Some of the poems written for his daughter are awe inspiring, and in such stark contrast to some of the deeply black peaces earlier in the book it comes as quite a shock. A Different Spike Spike Milligan seems to have been afforded legend status in England for his comic genius. It is only when you read this book that you can begin to understand the source of his often baffling irreverence. The book in itself is a masterpiece of diversity. It effortlessly switches from writings about his manic depression to soapbox type rants to the childish verse he wrote for his kids for which he has become well known. This book is almost more autobiographical than his famous war memoirs. It certainly gives you a rarely seen insight into his life. If you are a lover of Spike Milligan buy this book, If you are a lover of poetry, buy this book, if you want to laugh out loud and then be humbled, buy this book. Finding Hidden Words: The Poetry of Spike Milligan by Barbara Smith 'Writing a foreword to a book of serious poetry is bloody hard. Having written the poems you now have to write about them - rather like having put a pair of trousers on, you are now asked to don another pair. I don't understand poetry. I read quite a bit of it and I enjoy it, sometimes; some of it goes down easily, some is totally baffling. I am not an intellectual, I have a struggle with Ezra Pound. No, I started very simply with children's poems like 'Little Bo Peep' and they all still haunt me.' Spike Milligan (Terence Alan, 1918 -2002) has been described as 'anarchic', 'subversive', 'unsettling', 'unique', 'unbalanced' and 'difficult'. His writing output seems phenomenal even by modern standards, running to over forty volumes. This does not include scripts for The Goons, the radio show which ran for nine years at twenty six shows a year, or his numerous forays into stage, film and television. Milligan's foreword to his anthology of collected poems Hidden Words (1993) gives a bare flavour of Milligan the man. He was an intensely private person whose lifelong struggle with depression was an invidious feature. Of one thing we can be certain: Milligan lived his life in entirely contradictory terms - his own. "Its all getting further away from me" Milligan sets this section with the theme of 'Milligan the old man'. The poems here mainly have a reflective tone; some are very serious in content; others more humorous in outlook. However, Milligan's voice appears episodic. Modern media assumes reflection to occur in the reader, thus Milligan uses this device in the main to drive his work. His poetry works as short, sharp snapshots and in his own words: "I always have a turn in my poem; a little screw, at the end. 1 Perhaps Milligan assumes that the universality of his imagery needs no further explanation, such as in a poem like "Onos", where we are shown a florid evening scene. Milligan enjoys his wine, his company and the lateness of the hour and the 'turn' at the end is his revelation, "Good God! I'm pissed!" "One Last Summer" In this section, Milligan turns to affairs of the heart. The title could reveal a sense of desperation and hopelessness. Milligan married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1960, his second wife died in 1978 and his third wife survived him. He has admitted that the divorce was probably caused by the strain of scriptwriting for the BBC, which in turn led to the beginnings of his depressive decline. These difficulties may well have been much harder to bear fifty years ago, without the support systems that are available today. There is a curious aspect of unrequited love in some of the poems, most notably those from the late seventies; this may be due to the personal difficulties he experienced then. He hints at his own vulnerabilities in love but remains the cynic in the resolution and execution of some of these poems, as can be seen for example in "Revenge" or "Welcome Home", in both of which the end twist reflects a forced humour, that may be viewed as less than the truth. As ever, Milligan presents wholly his own view in the poetry. It would be interesting to contrast it with an opposing view, so to speak. "It Seemed It Would Last Forever" Regret, particularly for what has gone or ceased to be, is the predominant theme in this section. In the poem "Growing Up I", he shows that although physically he has aged, he has clung to the realm of childhood very strongly. Indeed, this is hinted at in the volume's foreword, where he uses the word 'haunt'. Milligan employs this again in this poem, as he describes his feelings as a 'haunting', without his former 'golden yesterdays' what is vital in his present is 'ended'. This would suggest a deep-rooted discontentment with the track of his later life. However, in the poem "Time Was", his approach chides the ignorance of the idealism of inexperienced youth, using the allies of 'distance in time' and maturity to underscore the point. It seems as though he views himself through the adage 'the past is a foreign country', as though in the present moment, he cannot understand the rationale of the younger man. "We've Come A Long Way Said The Cigarette Scientist" Milligan comments on the perceived lack of morality in the modern world in this section. He articulates incredulity at the contradictions and conundrums of our world and the general overtone of this section reads as a diffused but puzzled anger at the absurdities of the modern world. "Goliath" is a poem that demonstrates this point neatly. The poet puts the question to us, about the sense in cutting down a tree (100') to make chairs from it, ultimately to make the poet (6' 1") smaller when he sits on it (4' 2"). Reductio ad absurdum, indeed! "Open Heart University", is a crueller, some would say crude example, where Milligan shocks us with the image of a rabbit being destroyed for the sake of science, simply to demonstrate the technology of the day. Milligan does give clues as to where his poetic affinities may lie, in poems such as "To Robert Graves" and "Eight and Twenty Hunters". The former is a poem gently chiding both poets for their contention with the female muse. The latter uses some lines from a draft of Graves' work, to begin a fantastical story of humans searching for the impossible. Here, the twist simply shows Milligan laughing at man's silliness. Milligan had studied and enjoyed 'serious' poetry, particularly that of Robert Graves, despite his claims contrariwise in the foreword. Perhaps Milligan identified with Graves (both shared an experience of war); but in so doing he may have created a subtle message to warn the reader 'I am a serious poet!' perhaps with the caveat, 'When I want to be.' "Boxer, Boxer, where do you lie?" Milligan often expressed his concerns for our environment; Milligan versus the world, if you will. These sentiments are expressed in section five. In "M1 Way of Life", rather than choosing to count the human cost he takes the bird's eye view. He explores a road kill and bludgeons us with short sharp rhymes so that we see as clearly as he does the tyre tracks marking an anonymous car driver's heedless progress. However, he still employs humour to emphasize his points such as in his simple four line observation in "Butterfly", which ends with "Oh what beauty, oh what grace / Who needs visitors from outer space?" Although Milligan can be angry and direct he displays a softer side to great effect at times. A second example of his use of Graves' work as a springboard is given in "SPQR", where Milligan explores the world of myths using the backdrop of the Roman empire, but with the benefit of hindsight he warns, 'beware the geese'. "You Colour My Tired Mind" The theme of family features in the sixth section. This is where we find the kernel of Milligan the man. He obviously took great delight and comfort from his children, enjoying their untainted view of the world. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why his work may have been viewed by some as naïve or self-indulgent. Milligan's poetry seems most comfortable and joyous when looking at the world through their eyes. "The Garden Fairy" records his great delight in a story of gardening, using his daughter's viewpoint - he is moving rocks into the river; his daughter sees it simply as "trying to make the garden lighter!" "Somewhere - Sometime - Somehow" Section seven, revisits the absurd world of regrettable humanity once more. However, on this occasion Milligan appears less angry and more resigned to the lack of resolution in how things are. In the poem "Summer Dawn", the daybreak scene lovingly illustrates his children asleep, the fluidity of the river running nearby and the fullness of nature in his garden. Just when the reader is about to cynically disengage, he interjects "If only, / I didn't have flu". The underlying sentiment reads as though: 'That's the way that life is, really'. Is Milligan's glass half full or half empty? Milligan explores the world of words in a longer poem, using trees as a central image. "To Toni Savage and his Old Wooden Printing Machine" is a story of two trees that are felled to build a printing press and make the paper for printing on. Milligan reminds us that the words printed on the paper may ultimately have the deeper impact; describing their effect through the Muse of truth: "Her breeze still blows / on the mind of men / and sinks such roots / As no tree, has ever sunk," making the power of words strike deeper than the mere roots of trees. This may well have been one of Milligan's inspirations for naming this anthology. "Are these the Songs You Want to Hear?" Poetry of place could be one description for the final section of the book. These poems range from his memories of India, where he was born, across the world from Africa to Ireland. Much has been made of his affinity with Ireland, although one could say that his benefits from Irish citizenship (his Irish father served with the British Army in India) came more through his stubborn refusal to deal with the idiosyncrasies of British bureaucracy. His poetry does reflect more than a passing interest with Irish affairs. There are three poems that show this; two are concerned with the rising of 1916, one is a pared down comment on the 'vexing Northern question'. "African Sunset" is a striking poem, where Milligan again employs the reader in drawing the resolution from what is presented. Two viewpoints are vividly painted, inter-spliced with each other. Milligan allows the subtext of anger to percolate the poem and influence the reader as to what is right or wrong. Milligan's life encompassed eighty years of the twentieth century and stretched just inside the cusp of the millennium. He would have witnessed great changes, not just on a small scale within what has been 'loosely termed comedy' but fought in the Second World War, outlived Russian communism, the rise of counter-culture in the Sixties and Thatcherism in the Eighties, to take but a sample few2. He also watched his children grow to adulthood and create their own 'traffic jam'. Milligan could be viewed variously as a commentator on the ravages of time, an opponent to mindless 'progress' and an outspoken critic on modern morality. However, above all these guises, the one quality he has most come to be remembered for is his unforgettable almost childish humour. Milligan was evidently very much his own man, right to the end. The poetic legacy of Milligan should be judged apart from his other work. His work does require a great degree of translation in terms of what is secreted within some of these poems. It is difficult to say truly if Milligan stands apart from his world to comment, or if he is too much part of his world to give a balanced account. In truth, when trying to give an objective view about these poems, it is just barely possible to lay to one side the ghost of Milligan's comic reputation and his eccentric outlook on life. There are too many poems in this book clamouring to be discussed. The best that I can hope for is to encourage others to find Hidden Words, a poetic archive of one man's eccentric, angry, loving but enjoyable wit. 1 Demetrius Romeo with Rahni Sadler 'I think I caught up with Spike Milligan' Union Recorder, v75 no. 5, University of Sydney Union, http://www-staff.mcs.uts.edu.au/~hugh/spike.html Barbara Smith lives in Ireland. Her recent or pending publications include Riposte and Virtual Writer (Ireland); Garm Lu, (Canada); and Borderlands (Texan Poetry Review, USA). Previous publications include Poetic Stage (1998) and Gnosis (1996). | ||
