Shel Silverstein Essays - Childrens Poetry, Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein Chris Senn March 6, 2000 572 55 3153 Research Paper While I was growing up as a child, there were three authors whose works I read devoutly. One was Dr. Seuss and I liked his books so much that I am proud to say I have read every one published. The second author who had a profound impact on me was Jan Bernstein who is responsible for that loveable family The Bernstein Bears. The third is a poet, which is odd because I never have liked poetry. Shel Silverstein's children's poetry books were the only poetry I read until I was twelve and are the one's I still enjoy the most today as a young man. Shel Silverstein is known to most as the critically acclaimed children's poet, and before this project, I was unaware of the other things he had done. Shel Silverstein also did cartoons, served for his country during the Korean War, wrote folk songs, played the guitar, and probably most shocking to me, were his poems and drawings for Playboy Magazine which depicted fairly gruesome sexual acts as well as drug use, especially his own. Life experience seems to be the influence for his NC-17 rated material but I was curious to who influenced his witty, lyrical children's pieces. When studying Silverstein's poetry, you can see how the nonsense subjects and rhymes look similar to Edward Lear's nonsense poetry of one hundred and fifty years earlier and how the poetry of Ogden Nash, which Silverstein might have possibly read as a child, had influences on Shel's own pieces. However, the conclusion I have reached is purely hypothetical. Shel Silverstein once said he had no influences on his poetic style. In a 1975 interview with Jean Merciar, published in the February 24, 1975 issue of Publisher's Weekly, Silverstein said, ?When I was kid- 12, 14, around there- I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls. But I couldn't play ball, I couldn't dance. Luckily the girls didn't want me; not much I could do about that. So I started to draw and to write. I was also lucky that I didn't have anybody to copy, be impressed by. I had developed my own style, I was creating before I knew there was a Thurber, a Benchley, a Price and a Steinberg. I never even saw their work till I was around thirty. By the time I got to where I was attracting girls, I was already into work, and it was more important to me. Not that I wouldn't rather make love, but the work has become a habit? Even though Shel says nobody influenced his artistic abilities it is hard to believe that. Especially when you see how similar some of his pieces are to Edward Lear's. One of the most captivating things about Silverstein's poetry is that a sketch that he himself drew accompanies each one. They are usually funny, humorous sketches that add a visual interpretation to the poem. I thought that only Silverstein used such a technique but Edward Lear used the same idea during the 1850's. Besides similar artistic abilities they also made silly, goofy poems. Here's an example from Edward Lear: There was a Young Lady whose chin, Resembled the point of a pin; So she had made it sharp, And purchased a harp, And played several tunes with her chin. Along with that piece, there is a comical drawing of exactly what the poem says, a lady with a pointy chin playing a harp. There is a poem in Falling Up, by Shel Silverstein that uses the same techniques: Scale If only I could see the scale, I'm sure that it would state That I've lost ounces?maybe pounds Or even tons of weight. ?You'd better eat some pancakes- You're as skinny as a rail.? I'm sure that's what the scale would say? If I could see the scale. (Silverstein, p. 12) Of course there is a sketch of a fat man standing on a scale he cannot see, done by Shel himself. Besides being humorous pieces, there are other similarities you can derive. Both poets use the same phrase they used to start and to finish their respective poems. However, Edward Lear never took his poetry as far as Silverstein. Most of Lear's poems are five lines long