Shel Silverstein: A Critique on Where the Sidewalk Ends

Does the Sidewalk End?

            “If you are a dreamer, come in”(Silverstein 9). When I was growing up I had an extremely vigorous imagination. I’ve always loved fairytales and fantasy. I never could wait for Language Arts to start so that I could meet new characters and adventure to new places. However, when it came time to study poetry, I dreaded the class. I was under the impression that poetry was boring and completely void of any real meaning other than that person writing it really wanted to confuse it’s readers. I felt this way until I learned of Shel Silverstein. I remember sitting in the library during “Reading Day” when our librarian picked up a copy of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and began to read. I was instantly in love. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is filled with sounds that sing, language that surprises, interesting structures that support the meaning, and subjects that speak to children. All of which happen to be criteria for evaluating children’s poetry.

            Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” can easily be enjoyed by children of all ages but seems to be geared, at least for studying purposes, to third and fourth grade readers. It contains some difficult language and may require an older child to truly get some of the deeper meanings found in the poems. For example, in the poem The Land of Happy, Silverstein questions the possibility of a place that is void of any sadness and then states, “What a bore!” (143). Younger children may have a hard time understanding why a land with no problems would be boring. A third or fourth grader might realize that in a place where there are never any fights to resolve, problems tofix, or people to dislike; there wouldn’t be much to do at all.

            “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is an excellent example of children’s poetry because the collection contains so many of the different types of poems that children like to read. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is full of poetry that makes people smile like in Homemade Boat where the children build a magnificent boat, but forget the bottom. It contains examples of poems with imagery. When reading Recipe for a Hippopotamus Sandwich, one can’t help but imagine a hippo between two slices of bread. The illustrations, which Silverstein draws himself, help a lot as well. Silverstein’s poems tend to have wacky themes with humorous tones, however there are a few that express feelings and stir emotions. For example, Listen to the Mustn’ts is a very encouraging and uplifting poem. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” also contains poems that promote learning. In Smart, children must consider there math skills and in Flag, one will question their knowledge of geography. Silverstein does a great job of tying all these types of poems together to create a very interesting and fun collection.

If one were to evaluate “Where the Sidewalk Ends” based on the criteria found in “Literature and the Child”, they would find that the collection excels in every area that children’s poetry should. Silverstien uses a combination of rhyme, alliteration, as well as onomatopoeia to create sounds that sing. His use of language is constantly surprising and will engage students in thinking about the beauty of words. His interesting structures and layout of the poems support the meaning and make the poems fun to read. Oops! is written entirely upside down. Finally, Silverstein uses subjects that speak to children. He discusses school, eating, television watching, and parents. All of these are subjects that students have to deal with on a daily basis and can tend to get monotonous, yet “Where the Sidewalk Ends” presents them in new and interesting ways.

Teaching Idea:

An example of how one might present the works of Shel Silverstein would be to have students, before reading his poems, write their own on based on the criteria that they believe poetry must follow. In my opinion, elementary school students tend to think poetry is pretentious or mushy. The teacher will probably receive a lot of “roses are red” type poems. Then, while reading Silverstein, explain and give examples of the actual criteria for children’s poetry such as; language that surprises, sound that sings, structure that supports meaning, and subjects that speak to us. Next, have the students write new poems. Most teachers will probably find that they receive much more creative and humorous poetry this time around.