Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends is a poem which speaks about crossing the border of childhood, on to the real world of adulthood. In the poem he speaks of two made up lands. One where “the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright.” This made up land is represented in the poem as childhood, or in his words, where the sidewalk ends. The other land “where the smoke blows back” is interpreted as adulthood. While reading the poem, Shel assumes that his reader will have some sort of imagination, due to his fictional descriptions.
In Byzantium, death becomes something that can be thought about realistically (which is a big improvement over our speaker’s old home). In fact, once he starts reflecting about death, he actually begins to figure out ways to commemorate life. According to the speaker, the best way to commemorate life is art. (You had to know that one was coming. After all, this is a poem.)
Both poems address the idea of seizing opportunity and living life to its fullest, but from different perspectives – one positive and optimistic, one negative through pessimism. The poems are similar because they both speak of love and seizing opportunity. Herrick’s first stanza begins by stating, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may/ Old-time is still a-flying” (lines 1-2). What these lines portray is we must seize opportunity as we can because time is always moving and doesn’t slow down for anyone. Through the visual imagery of “gathering rosebuds,” the rosebuds are a symbol for purity and innocence we can draw the conclusion that the speaker is telling the virgins they are innocent and pure, but soon they will bloom and that is when life should be lived to the fullest, for example by having sex, marrying and having a family.
The poetic device helped express the authors feelings because he compairs beauty and night so you can get a better understanding of where the author is coming from.| She walks in beauty like the night| Emotion:What emotion was the author trying to express?I think the authour was trying to express love and therefore was at peace.| She walks in beauty like the night| Structure:How is the poem organized (lines, stanzas, etc.)? What is unique or interesting about the structure of the poem?Does the poem rhyme?Something that is unique about the poem is that uses words and sayings. Which tells me it has been
From here, we can figure out that the Garden of love is a metaphor for a woman, or Blake’s character’s love. In the first stanza, Blake’s character demonstrates familiarity of the Garden when he says, “Where I used to play on the green.” The words “used to” and “play” explains that he probably knew the Garden in his younger years because many grown up men do not usually “play” anymore. The author wants readers to know this because this poem resembles how love hopes to be rediscovered. Blake’s character wants to believe that his love still holds a place for him, but in reality, everything that once was, has now vanished. Many problems prevent Blake’s character from reconnecting with his lover of the past.
Edgar Allen Poe demonstrates in his written works of “Lenore”, “Annabel Lee”, and “To Helen” an element that seemingly attempts to give the reader exceptional emotional sadness. Poe does this by telling the poem in a point of view where a man tells the story of the death or remembrance of a young love or woman. He also puts a sense of gloom in each of his poems. This allows for the reader to create a mental image if the setting, without him having to directly point it out. As well, the gloominess of his poetry could also be due to his longing effect of sadness that he attempts to express.
caked mud?” conveys to the reader the poets nervousness and apprehension with connecting with his past and cultural heritage. The last stanza explores belonging to a place and belonging to people this is shown in the last line “the wind tastes of blood.” This is a reference to human mortality, it plays on the idea of blood representing kinship and by extension belonging. The last stanza alludes to the state of the persona. The blood of one’s ancestor’s links to the poet’s homeland and the idea of returning to where you belong when you die. Ancestors and Post card both explore the concepts of belonging.
However in this poem she cannot find a happier memory and recalls a dream instead, “I dreamed once long ago, that we walked among day-bright flowers.” Her use of positive imagery such as the “day-bright flowers” lightens the mood and achieves the same effect of the memories in The Violets, as she stops thinking of death and causes the reader to forget the unhappy nature of the initial memory and be emotionally moved by the warmth of the following memory where she is “secure in my father’s arms.” In her poems The Violets, Father and Child and At Mornington Gwen Harwood demonstrates through her use of memories, her loss of innocence, the love for her parents and how quickly time moves. Her memories also serve to engage the reader and make us feel her sense of happiness, sorrow and
This poem is my favourite poem due to the double meaning of the poet’s words you could read one thing but it truly means something else. That is why I chose this poem for my Culminating Activity. Shel Silverstein is a children’s poet who wrote “Where the Sidewalk Ends” as a child’s poem but was really intended for adults. In the poem he is hinting that adults need to take a step back and put themselves back as children to find joy and passion again. I feel that this message is important in everyday life because people take life too seriously and later regret not had enjoying themselves more.
It's almost like singing, "If you're happy and you know it, think again!" What was a carefree bliss for the speaker turns out to be a fleeting joy that he ever can't recapture. What a bummer. Stanza 1 Summary Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line. Lines 1-2 Now I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green * Welcome to Fern Hill, where the speaker was once young and carefree.