FREE ESSAY ON 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 and all have a rhyme scheme of AABBA and they all repeat some form
the first line for the ending. Basically, Silverstein progressed on Lear's ideas and
form, as did Ogden Nash.
Ogden Nash was a children's poet whose works were being published during Silverstein's
childhood. Even though he says he never read them, you can't help but notice similarities
once again. Nash was a master of light and whimsical verses, a trait Silverstein had as
well. Nash's subject matter wasn't quite as juvenile and his poems occasionally use large
vocabulary words like posterior. Nash is probably best known for his four-line poem
titled Reflections on Icebreaking. 
Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor 
Is quicker
Ogden had many pieces that would later resemble Silverstein's, like The Cow.
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other milk.
This poem is so incredibly simple it is almost mind-boggling. Silverstein was a master of
getting a point across with as little words as necessary just like Ogden's piece. 
STONE AIRPLANE
I made an airplane out of stone...
I always did like staying home.
Very simple, yet it is an enough to make the reader understand the point. 
Another poem by Ogden Nash that has a lot in common with Silverstein's work, is his poem
called The Termite. It uses iambic pentameter with four measures per line and has a rhyme
scheme of AABB.
Some Primal Termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good!
And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today
Shel Silverstein has at least two dozen poems that follow this pattern but the one I
always liked is called Don the Dragon's Birthday.
Here he comes across the lake.
He's comin' for his birthday cake.
Sing "Happy Birthday, Dragon Don,"
And watch him blow his candles...on.
Silverstein also uses iambic pentameter with four measures per line and follows the same
rhyme scheme, AABB. Other similarities between Nash and Silverstein include their choices
of topics. Both have numerous poems about animals, especially the little appreciated (the
termite) and the fictional (unicorns and dragons). Even though Silverstein says her never
read Nash or Lear their respective styles of poetry seem to have been emulated by
Silverstein in his work.
Those are the main two influences on Silverstein's poetry. Even though he says he never
read them, their contributions to poetry paved the way for Shel Silverstein. Edward Lear
and Ogden Nash made silly poetry with no hidden metaphors acceptable to the critics as
well as mainstream America. They were, by far the two largest influences, even though
maybe not directly, on Silverstein's poetry. Because of these three men and Dr. Seuss
funny, silly, lyrical verses and poems are now accepted and even embraced by people all
over the world.
Bibliography
1. Friday, Sely. http://195.114233.19/Silverstein/bio.html. 2/29/2000.
2. http://www2.pair.com/mgraz/Lear/BoN/bon020.html. 3/5/2000.
3. Silverstein, Shel. Falling Up, Scale. Harper Collins Publishers, New York City. P. 12

4. Nash, Megan. http://www.westegg.com/nash/ice-breaking.cgi 3/5/2000.
5. Nash. http://www.westegg.com/nash/cow.cgi 3/5/2000
6. Silverstein p 49.
7. Nash http://www.westegg.com/nash/cow.cgi 3/5/2000
8. Silverstein p.54