Unto Us
Spike Milligan’s “Unto Us” is one of his more serious poems that is about the issue of abortion or rather abortion for convenience. He adopts the persona of an unborn child which is unusual, yet effective method of narration, as it evokes sympathy from the reader. The poem tells the story of a child who is desperate for life but is “murdered” before he/she has a chance to live. The title of the poem “Unto Us” is taken directly from the phrase in the Bible: “Unto us a child is born”. This shortened version of the biblical reference is clever as it relates to the child’s life being cut short. This is just one of the techniques used by the writer that makes it effective and I will be discussing these through the rest of the essay. The poem is split up into three sections: conception and leading up to the birth, abortion, and aftermath. The opening lines of the poem “somewhere at some time they committed themselves to me suggests a fleeting moment; this certainly wasn’t planned. It also implies that the parents have a duty and responsibility which is ironic considering the disregard they show towards the baby. The writer goes on to emphasise the baby’s existence by use of repetition and exclamations “And so I was! Small but I WAS!” This argues the point that an unborn child is still a human even in the early stages of development. The discovery of the child by the parents is totally void of any emotion:“Soon they knew of me. My mother - my father”The dash is used to signal a delay between the mother finding out and then the father. It also shows a lack of togetherness between the couple. The tone of this section is one of desperation and pleading quite obviously indicated by the last two lines:“A silent ‘Wait for me I will bring you love’”