Unto Us" by Spike Milligan is a poem which discusses the issue of abortion and
throughout the poem Milligan clearly shows that he is strongly against it. He does
this by using several techniques such as effective word choice, imagery and
repetition. The title of the poem is also very clever, as Spike has used the first few
words from the famous quote "Unto us a child was born". The quote is cut short
to symbolise the baby's life, which has also been cut short due to abortion. The
poem is written in the first person, from the perspective of the unborn baby.
The first stanza of the poem is very positive and there is no mention of abortion.
The poem talks about how the parents "committed" themselves to the baby
during conception, this shows that when a baby is conceived the parents should
be prepared to change their lives and bring up the child. The use of the
exclamation mark in the line "And so I was!" is also very effective because it
expresses how amazing and shocking the act of creating life is, therefore Milligan
makes abortion seem even more horrific and unnatural. "I hung in my pulsing
cave" is a good way of using imagery to refer to the womb because it highlights
the fact that it should be somewhere that the baby is protected and is hidden
from any dangers just as it would be in a "cave". "Pulsing" shows that the baby is
definitely still alive and well. However the first stanza does hint at the fact that
the pregnancy was not planned due to the words "somewhere" and "sometime"
which are both very vague.
In the second stanza Milligan shows the parents reaction to finding out they are
having a baby. The line "I had no say in my being" refers to the baby wanting to
come into the world instead of being aborted. It shows that the foetus has no say
over its own life and makes the fact that the parents are willing to get rid of it so
quickly, even though it is a human life, seem even more disgusting. The word
"trust" also shows that the baby was putting its life in the hands of its parents.
The lines in this stanza have very little punctuation making the sentences long and
drawn out. This gives the impression that the baby is begging and trying
desperately to let the parents know that it wants to live. Milligan has shown very
clearly that the baby does not want to die, therefore making abortion seem like
nothing more than murder.
The third stanza is the most disturbing part of the poem because it describes the
act of the abortion being carried out and makes the baby sound like a piece of
rubbish. "Blind, naked, defenceless" shows that the baby is extremely vulnerable
and highlights the fact that it is being forced into this. The poem then goes on to
describe the doctor. Milligan uses the words "whose good name was graven on a
brass plate". This means that the doctor has a good reputation however this line
is also very sarcastic because in the eyes of the baby the doctor is nothing more
than a murderer. The lines "And dropped on the sterile floor" "Of a foot-operated
plastic waste bucket" make the reader feel disgusted by what has happened to
the aborted baby because it has been treated as nothing more than a bit of a
waste. The word "dropped" suggests it has just been forgotten about and means
nothing, and the fact that the bin is just cheap and plastic suggests that human
life is also worthless.
The fourth and final stanza is about the parents celebrating the child being
aborted. In this section it mentions the cot which "stood in "Harrod's shop
window." This implies that the parent's of this child were well off and would have
been able to give the child a good life. It makes the reader wonder why they
aborted the baby even though they had enough money to raise it. When the
father finds out that the abortion has been completed he "smiles" making it seem
as if he thinks of the abortion as good news. During this stanza the word "my" is
repeated several times. This is effective because it emphasises the fact that the
foetus was once a being and had an identity, making it seem even worse that it
has been killed. Milligan also talks about an "empty space", he is referring to the
mother's womb which is now empty and symbolises the fact that the baby has
just disappeared as if it never existed. The parents celebrated by getting two
tickets to go and see Danny La Rue. Milligan has used Danny La Rue in this poem,
as he is a drag artist and so is not a real woman, just as the aborted baby's mother
is not a real woman because se did not go through with the birth.
In this poem it is obvious that Spike Milligan is against abortion in a big way. He
makes this clear by showing that the baby has a personality and identity of its
own. This makes the reader feel horrified when the parents abort it and forget
about it without even a second thought. The reader is also shocked by the fact
that the parents seem to celebrate the death of the baby rather than be
saddened by it. This poem is very deep and meaningful and makes the reader
question their own beliefs on abortion.