Picture Puzzle Pieces

1105 Words5 Pages
Picture Puzzle Piece by Shel Silverstein uses imagery to form the images of the one wet puzzle piece on the sidewalk. Also how that one puzzle piece literally fits into the whole puzzle, what the puzzle could be of, and what the one little piece would a picture of from the whole. The visual appearance of the poem is varying line lengths, which gives an impression of a puzzle piece. The sides on a puzzle piece are different shapes and lengths, like the puzzle piece the lines in the poem are all different lengths. The poem uses mainly allusion throughout the poem to reference other literary works. For example the author uses the story of the woman who lived in a shoe, a magical bean for Jack and the Giant Bean Stalk, Snow white, Bobo the bear, and The Wizard of Oz throughout the poem to create thought on what the puzzle piece could be. The poem does not fall into one set stanza form because it is a contemporary poem. The poem has one large stanza. The use of punctuation is what Silverstein uses instead of stanzas, as a method of separation from concept changes. Wherever a period is shown it ends one thought of what the puzzle piece could be. For example in line 11 the author begins to talk about Snow White but does not finish his thought until line 13 where the end of the thought is marked with a period, and line 14 begins another thought of how the piece could be a part of a bride and ends the thought in line 15 with a period. The local color of the poem is more a matter of time than a place, because the poem does not give you any evidence to the place or region just that it is outside on the sidewalk in the rain. The speaker of the poem is unknown. With the information in the poem it is unclear whether the speaker is male or female. Also the only other clue that the author gives is that the speaker must know the different fictional stories that are
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