Where the Sidewalk Ends and Poetry Begins

According to Living Literature: Using Children's Literature to Support Reading and Language Arts, Poetry tugs at us with an insistent voice that rings through our heads. Poetry is an easy, short story that sticks with us, replays in our mind and can cheer us up on a gloomy day. Poets go beyond the surface of words and dive into the meaning and context of words. Sometimes in poetry what we read isn't what is really meant at all. There is sometimes a much deeper meaning behind what we read. It's up to us to find that meaning though. Shel Silverstein does a fabulous job of engaging readers and enticing us to read more and reread his poems. His poems reach young children, older children, and children who have grown into adults. Shel Silverstein makes poetry fun, memorable, and interesting for all ages. No matter how his poems are read, you can find a deeper meaning and more complex story within the poem.

In the anthology, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the poem, What a Day, really grabs my attention. This poem fits into the genre of poetry. It has one stanza and has a rhyme pattern. It may not be the longest poem, but it has meaning and can make the reader think. This poem is easy for children to read and it allows them to see the surface meaning of the poem. However, after thinking through the poem aloud with a class, there is a more profound meaning behind the poem. In the poem, it says, "My baby brother ran AWAY, and now my tuba will not PLAY, I'm eight years old and turning GREY, Oh what a DAY." This is very obvious that it rhymes and has a pattern, so this will be easy for young students to see and understand the components that make this a poem.

When reading this poem in the book, the picture that goes along with it, really adds meaning and makes the student or reader think a bit more. Though the poem may be an easy read, the illustration adds much more depth to the meaning of the poem. The boy thinks his brother ran away, and while reading one may think he really did. However, after seeing the picture we know that the little brother is hiding in the top of the tuba and this is why the tuba will not play. So, really, the boy has no reason to be grey, his brother never ran away, he was right there with him the whole time.

The meaning behind the poem really makes me love it that much more! It may be a simple read, but after thinking deeper and looking at the illustration, it's easy to see that even though things may look terrible, it may not actually be that! The boy thought his tuba was damaged and that his brother ran away, but he just needed to look at the bigger picture, to find out that his bad day wasn't so bad at all!