Poetry Friday: More Spike Milligan
I once wrote a post on the poem “On the Ning Nang Nong” by Spike Milligan. That poem has never left my mind and since then I have happily acquired more wonderful poetry by Spike Milligan in the form of a ‘collected’ called A Children’s Treasury of Milligan. Ever his whimsical self, Milligan purports that the collection is a result of a search for six of his childrens’ titles that were supposedly found in various locations like a haddock-stretching factory and a dead whale in Newfoundland among other outlandish places. But seriously folks, this collection does indeed draw from Milligan’s previous works for children that include such classics as Unspun Socks from a Chicken’s Laundry and Silly Verse for Kids.
Milligan is particularly good with animals. Indeed, one of his six books is titled A Book of Milliganimals. This section is not just confined to word-play on the theme of animals but also has some great illustrations done by Milligan himself. There is, for example, the rouge-colored “Strawberry Moose” and the “Three-legged Hippo” which is a rendering of the animal with three legs, of course, from different perspectives, one of which includes a “rare back view.” And of course, there is lots of silly verse such as:
Tiger, Tiger Burning etc
Tigers travel stealthily
Using, first, legs one and three.
They alternate with two and four;
And, after that, there are no more.
As well as Milligan’s verse, the collection contains two stories — “The Bald Twit Lion” and “Sir Nobonk and the terrible, awful, dreadful, naughty, nasty Dragon” which make good counterpoint to the poetry. With all this wonderful material, this book can easily entertain parent and child for many a bedtime read, as my daughter and I are discovering.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is Becky’s Book Reviews…
November 27th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
[...] PaperTigers is in with a post on the poetry of Spike Milligan. [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
This sounds like a fun book. Thanks for posting.
November 27th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I love Milligan, so will keep a weather eye out for this one. I wonder if your daughter is old enough for the Goon Shows yet?
November 28th, 2009 at 3:31 am
[...] Read the rest here: Poetry Friday: More Spike Milligan [...]
November 28th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I haven’t tried the Goon Shows on her yet which I can only get on Youtubes clips here in Canada, but there are some Youtubes of Milligan’s poetry which I’ve shown her. If you do a videos search on the Ning Nang Nong, you’ll find a few videos done of the poem. There’s also a funny one done of Milligan’s poem “Teeth.”
November 29th, 2009 at 11:38 am
This sounds like a fun book. Thanks for the review.