Poems by Shel Silverstein

The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein


1) The poem is trying to convey the similarities between a child and an old man.


2)Every comment made by the child is followed by an agreement made by the old man.


Messy Room by Shel Silverstein


1) Yes. The narrator was scolding himself that he should be ashamed of himself. When he realised that he was scolding himself, he made up a useless statement in hope to divert the attention of the person he is speaking to. He wanted the listener to think that he was smart as he realised that the room is familiar.

2)People liked to complain about other people's actions, but they try to make themself look clever.



Cloony The Clown by Shel Silverstein



1) When he tried to make other people laugh, no one laughed. When he was telling others about his sadness, everybody laughed.

2) Yes. He conveyed the fact that people can hurt us by laughing when we are sad, but we cannot do anything as we cannot control them.

3) The poet repeated the last sound of the last word of each line to stress on the difference between his intended reaction and the reaction from the audience.