A Silly Poem

A Silly Poem - meaning Summary

Shakespeare Meets Wordplay

Spike Milligan's short poem playfully collapses high culture and childish joke-making. By placing Hamlet and Ophelia in a silly domestic scene about sketching, the speaker converts the solemn soliloquy into a visual pun: the existential question becomes a choice of pencil grade. The poem undercuts tragic weight with absurdity, using economy and a single twist to highlight comedy through incongruous context and language play.