Theme Of Where The Sidewalk Ends

There is no verse in the poem, but there is a rhythm that emerges when read aloud. The author uses a negative, positive pattern throughout the majority of the poem, which, accentuates the differences between her positive feeling about the memory, vs. the white author’s perception of the memory.

The strongest usage of metaphor in this poem is in the first stanza in the line “write their knees with necessary scratches”. While scratches cannot be written, words can, so this insinuates that children learn with nature, and that despite its fading presence in today’s urban structures, it is a necessary learning tool for children. The poet has used this metaphor to remind the reader of their childhood, and how important it is to not just learn from the confines of a classroom, but in the world outside. This leads to create a sense of guilt in the reader for allowing such significant part of a child’s growing up to disintegrate into its concrete surroundings. Although a positive statement within itself, this metaphor brings upon a negative

The poem is written in free verse, offers no type of rhyme scheme, and in one long stanza. This contributes to

Although this is a short poem, there are so many different meanings that can come from the piece. With different literary poetic devices such as similes, imagery, and symbolism different people take away different things from the poem. One of my classmates saw it as an extended metaphor after searching for a deeper connection with the author. After some research on the author, we came to learn that the

The poem is structured in a way which follows the proper metre for a sonnet, however, it is unusual in a sense that it is free verse and has no rhyme scheme. The sentences are broken to fit the iambic pentameter. This creates pauses, and a choppiness in the flow

The poem is formed of eight stanzas, each one is six lines long except for the fifth stanza which is an octet. The stanzas are formed of sets of three rhyming couplets in the

The poem does not follow a rhyme scheme or meter, which means that there is rhythm in the poem and it makes the poem more like a song. The poem has four stanza’s and has five lines within each stanza.

With a few exceptions, the poem primarily follows the form of accentual-syllabic verse. The majority of lines are composed of three syllables, most often two unstressed and one stressed. Using a combination of structural technique and descriptive language, Williams emphasizes the action of visual perception.

This is done in the first line when he says “If we had hinges on our heads”. By saying this he is comparing our minds to something that be open or closed and essentially saying if only we could control what stays in and what we take out, like bad ideas or memories because that could impact the future in a negative way. Along with imagery Silverstein also uses rhyming. In line two he says “There wouldn’t be no sin” and in line four he says “Leave the good stuff in”. The last word in both of those verses rhymes. Doing this makes the poem flow together and for some it would make it more appealing to

In the third stanza, a lot of imagery is used. The significant ones are present in the seventh and eleventh lines. In the first line, the poet writes, "A

Shel Silverstein, the author of, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, was a musician and poet known for writing children books such as, “The Giving Tree” (Shel Silverstein). He was born on September 25, 1930 and died on May 8, 1999 (Shel Silverstein). Throughout his life Mr.Silverstein, worked in many diverse occupations ranging from the military to becoming an author (Shel Silverstein). Because majority of his books and poems were for children, they (the books and poems) often incorporated positive imagery, metaphors, etc. In the poem, “Where The Sidewalk Ends”, Shel Silverstein uses imagery, shift, and personal pronouns to identify that adults must forget about the materialistic things in their lives to achieve a greater sense of happiness and joy.

arguably the best poem of all time. In just three short but powerful stanzas, Silverstein is able to

Eliot uses metaphor to relate accessible, physical entities and concepts to more abstract themes present in the poem. In

Because the poem is long, it won’t be quoted extensively here, but it is attached at the end of the paper for ease of reference. Instead, the paper will analyze the poetic elements in the work, stanza by stanza. First, because the poem is being read on-line, it’s not possible to say for certain that each stanza is a particular number of lines long. Each of several versions looks different on the screen; that is, there is no pattern to the number of lines in each stanza. However, the stanzas are more like paragraphs in a letter than

The poem begins with two lines which are repeated throughout the poem which convey what the narrator is thinking, they represent the voice in