Literature and Life - Shel Silverstein

So now I am going to share my answers to the questions on some of Shel Silverstein poems.

The Little Boy and the Old Man.
Q1. What is the underlying message that is being conveyed in this poem?
Ans: The underlying message is that people nowadays focus largely on their adulthood and teenagerhood, leaving and neglecting the children and the elderly. This poem is trying to tell us that, life is balanced, example: there are 4 stages in life, childhood, teenagerhood, adulthood and the elderly, there are 2 stages in life where people focus more on, teenagerhood and adulthood, leaving childhood and elderhood which are neglected. The poem shows us that childhood and elderhood are in someway similar in the fact that both are ignored and neglected.

Q2. Has Shel Silverstein used any particular poetic technique that brings out this message more clearly?
Ans: Yes. Shel used dialogue, he used dialogue to allow us to understand the situation more clearly by using direct speech to describe the current events, he also made the answers short and simple which is easy to understand.

Messy Room
Q1. Can you say that the poem is humorous? If so how?
Ans: Yes, the descriptions in the poem are exaggerated, such as :"And his smelly old sock has been stuck to wall" this exaggeration is too obvious to guess, ask yourself, which sock is so dirty and old that sticks to the wall?

Q2. What aspect of the human character has been highlighted in this poem?
Ans: The poem has highlighted that humans are sometimes quick to blame others and not themselves, the first person that comes their mind when something wrong happens, never will ever think of themselves first, its always someone else.

Cloony the Clown
Q1. Explain the irony in this poem.
Ans: In this poem, the irony is that when Cloony tried to be funny, nobody laughed but instead insulted him, however when was serious and did not want to be funny, everybody laughed.

Q2. Does Shel Silverstein manage to convey some harsh realitiesin this poem?
Ans: Yes, he does. He shows us that in life, expect the unexpected, sometimes things just does'nt go the way you want it to go, life in unpredictable.

Q3. What poetic devices has the poet used to effectively convey his message?
Ans: Shel has used allusion, enjambment, hyperbole, metaphor, onomatopoeia.