Poems by Shel Silverstein

The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein

1. Its conveys that the old man is like the little boy in certain ways although their ages may differ by a lot. Their thoughts and actions are alike and they might feel weak, helpless, lonely and needs attention.

2. Shel Silverstein used repetition to bring out this message more as it makes the poem more interesting. He used repetitive phrases like " I do that too " to bring out that the old and is like the little boy.

Messy Room by Shel Silverstein

1. The poem is humorous because at the start, the author was saying many negative comments about the owner of the messy room and said he should be ashamed of his room but it actually turns out to be himself.

2. The aspect of the human character that is highlighted in this poem is that people tend to blame others without even first understanding the whole story and also people tends to point out others mistake and feel that they should be ashamed of it but not actually realising that they too had made the same mistake and did not try to correct it.

Cloony The Clown by Shel Silverstein

1. The irony in this poem is that when Cloony the Clown tried to be funny, people did not laugh or think it was funny but when Cloony the Clown was serious and told them his tale of woe, people took it as a joke and laughed at it.

2. Shel Silverstein managed to convey some harsh realities in this poem. When some people try to be serious, they are not taken seriously and this would break their hearts as that is not what they wanted to happen.

3. The poet had used repetition like " Everyone felt a little sick ", " Everyone looked awfully blue and " And every time he did a trick" , " And every time he told a joke" and also " They laughed with howls and yowls and shrieks", " They laughed all day, the laughed all week". This emphasizes it and make the poet able to convey his message effectively. The poet also used assonance on the word at the end of the line and the last word on the next line like " clown"," town", " small", " all" and " head", " bed". This makes the poem more interesting.



I can identify Cloony The Clown with the most because the poet used a lot of poetic devices like repetition, irony and assonance.