Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (ANALYSIS)

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

                    Analysis

This poem is analyzed to be a poem about the beautiful scenery of a beautiful day.  The poem expresses the scenery in a creative and descriptive way of a bright sunny day.

The poem is very deep in description with words that show a lot of detail in depth.  The format he uses is a portion of end rhyme and internal rhyme scheme.  Shel Silverstein uses a lot of words that show a lot of detail in depth. Shel Silverstein chose poetry when he couldn’t play baseball or “good with the ladies.”  Then he realizes he has a gift for words and rhyming.  His poem uses ABCCCB type stanzas.  He uses a lot of words that are very informative and has a huge imagination.  The poem is a happy mood poem in the beginning, then switches gears to a more gloomy, dark mood.  The poem is pretty much a picture replaced with words.  The poem is very descriptive and shows emotion and words like “Bright, flight, peppermint wind.”  Shel Silverstein has a wide vocabulary in his poems, providing a more in depth description in his poems.  

In the lines that describes the “peppermint wind” show a very good example of a slap of a cool breeze and smell of fresh air.  The poem shows that life isn’t all always about work and no fun, telling to enjoy life and enjoy the little things.  The poem expresses the simple joys in life that should be enjoyed, because people are always on the move, and never have time to lay back and rest up and enjoy the tranquility of nature summer has to offer.  This could be also referring to technology that has taken over our lives, we are constantly face deep in our electronics and always stressing over our jobs, conflicts, and a hard days work.

The poem really shows how stressful life is and that everyone deserves to relax after a hard day.  I personally thought the poem was a good poem, it had good spirit and did well in bringing his feelings to the reader.  The poet’s full name is Sheldon Allan Silverstein, born on September 25, 1930, and died May 1999.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  Shel Silverstein didn’t start off the bat as a writer, he adjusted to it after trying numerous interests of his that never satisfied him completely.  He wrote so many books over the decades.  His interests grew bigger and bigger while he wrote songs and worked with many other famous people.  Shel Silverstein has wowed many people and children with his poems and are still read today.


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