Poem Appreciation(:

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
By Shel Silverstein

Today, I would like to share this well-known poem, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, by the equally well-known poet Shel Silverstein. However, do note that my purpose here is not to give a detailed analysis of the poem, I am here to state why this poem has remained embedded in my mind long after I chanced upon this.

Firstly, let me try to briefly dissect the poem so as to understand it more easily. In my book, Shel Silverstein is trying to describe a place that is magical, and that “is a place where the sidewalk ends”. This magical place is described using a childlike tone in the first paragraph, as it states in line 6 that the moon-bird(what is this anyway?) cools in peppermint wind, which is obviously fictitious.

In the next paragraph, Shel Silverstein urges us to live the place “where the smoke blows black”, which I think means the real world in which we live in. He seems to tell us to follow the “chalk-white” arrows and go to the imaginary paradise, the place where the sidewalk ends.

In the final paragraph, something seemed to catch my attention. In the fifteenth line, Shel says “For the children, they mark, and the children, they know”. This seems to imply that the only untarnished thing in this world is childlike innocence, and that is the only thing that shines above the dark pollution of the current world.

Ok, enough of all the analysing. Let’s go to the gist of this post. Why do I like this poem so much? Well, this is actually because I am fascinated by how Shel Silverstein actually conjures up a perfect Utopia. Another unique thing about this imaginary paradise is that it seems childlike, it seems conjured up from the mindset of a young child. By using fictitious words like “moon-bird” and “peppermint wind”, this does not seem like the brainchild of a fully-grown adult. This is something rather interesting about this poem, and something that caught my attention.

Next, I seem to feel that Shel Silverstein might be under a great deal of stress or facing many problems when he wrote this poem. This is because he describes the real world as a “place where the smoke blows black”. This is an ominous description and seems to suggest an eerie sense of doom in our world. Although this might not actually be the case, this might be because Shel is simply extremely frustrated in his current life, and decided to vent his frustrations using words. This is something that suddenly came to me, and might not be actually accurate, but this is something that also stood out to me, and one of the reasons why my attention got caught by this poem, and why I still remember this poem even after a long time.

Also, another reason why this poem has left a rather huge impact on me is the mention of children in the poem (“For the children, they mark, and the children, they know”). This, to me, is an indirect praise for children, as it seems that Shel is admiring that children are the only thing is a corrupted world that is “uncorrupted”. Children as innocent people in a not-so-innocent world seems like a fresh unique theory, which caught my attention as well.

In a nutshell, why this poem had a large impact on me is because the poem’s meaning seems unfitting for the age and maturity of the poet, which might not be a bad thing. Also, the poem also publicly voices the frustration that the poet has with the real world, and seems to urge us to improve the world we are in. Finally, Shel Silverstein also praises children, although not because they are cute or anything, unlike many other poems praising children for being cute or pompous etc. This time, Shel praises children because they are innocent and are not tainted by the “pollution” of today’s world, which is something new to me. All these are the reasons why I like this poem so much.

Cheers,

Roystan