Where The Sidewalk Ends

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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. This poem has a rhythm that could keep a child interested with a happy story but as a deep underlying message. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” uses imagery, symbolism and a hint of sound devices to strengthen that underlying message. Silverstein used symbolism to give that double meaning to the words he wrote, for example “and the children, they know,” (Stanza 3 Line 3) could simply mean that the children they know where the sidewalk ends, or it could mean that having the mind of a child will show us the way to a happier place. I felt that the poet uses sidewalk as a word with deeper meaning. I see it that adults have created a depressing world, with industrialization, factories, and pollution. Therefore the children don’t know this dark world yet ant they live in an innocent world that is bright and comfortable. The first Stanza is symbolizing a place without the buildings and sidewalks, which is to me where the children live, in dreams and their imaginations. I believe this because when I read the first stanza is gives off a happy description of a bright sunny place. However the second stanza to me symbolizes a However the second stanza describes a place of darkness and sadness, which is why I think that this is where the adults live. Then after that the poem tells the adults to
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