I lived from 1884-1940.
Little is known about J Milton Hayes. A North County actor, he reputedly wrote his best-known poem, The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God in five hours, as material for the great Bransby Williams to use in his act.
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An associate of Alec Waugh (Evelyn's brother) in the First World War, he was imprisoned in a German POW camp. Waugh quotes Hayes in his book My Brother Evelyn and Other Profiles:
"I wrote The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God in five hours, but I had it all planned out. It isn't poetry and it does not pretend to be, but it does what it sets out to do. It appeals to the imagination from the start: those colours, green and yellow, create an atmosphere. Then India, everyone has his own idea of India. Don't tell the public too much. Strike chords. It is no use describing a house; the reader will fix the scene in some spot he knows himself. All you've got to say is 'India' and a man sees something. Then play on his susceptabilities."
Peter Kirkpatrick University of Western Sydney described the poem and the 'tradition' it would belong to in the following terms (August 2003):
'‘The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God’ by J. Milton Hayes... a ripping yarn of misguided British pluck and dastardly oriental vengeance. Poems like this were once very well known, so well known in fact, that they became objects of parody. The vaudeville comedian, Roy Rene, better known as Mo, used to perform a sketch in which he endeavoured to recite ‘The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God’, only to be constantly interrupted by hecklers dressed as ex-Indian Army officers planted in the audience. In frustration, Mo would explode with ‘Oh this is lovely! This is beautiful! A gentleman and a scholar can’t get up to resuscitate an immoral piece of poultry without being got at!'
My poetry
There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
53 lines, 1 comment
THE COLONEL stopped, and glared around,
Then, pointing sternly to the ground,
32 lines
YOU can keep your antique silver and your statuettes of bronze,
Your curios and tapestries so fine,
79 lines
THE MERCHANT Abu Khan shunned the customs of his race,
And sought the cultured wisdom of the West.
67 lines
I’VE noticed this happen, when everything is black,
When I’m down below zero and cannot get back,
38 lines, 1 comment
HE’S acruisin’ in a pearler with a dirty nigger crew,
Abuyin’ pearls and copra for a stingy Spanish Jew,
65 lines
MERCHANDISE! Merchandise! Tortoiseshell, spices,
Carpets and Indigo sent o’er the highseas;
50 lines
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