So throughout the poem, we hear repeats of old sounds, but welcome some new ones, too. 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 (8-10) 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 (13-15) Rhymes with some of the lines from the previous stanza! Check it out: Also, the rhyme in this stanza isn't only limited to itself: it actually
It's kind of like a refrain, or a phrase that occurs over and over again. There is a place where the sidewalk ends (1) Let's take a closer look: the last line repeats the very first line, almost exactly: Then, the last stanza does something pretty cool: it combines some of the major sounds from the stanzas before it. Got all that? It's a little random, but there seems to be some method to the madness: it makes it so there are lots of repetitions in the sounds, but it's not too overwhelming or boring. The third, fourth, and fifth lines rhyme with each other.Īnd there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight (3-5) Then the second line roughly rhymes with the last line:
In the first two stanzas, the first line stands alone, not rhyming with anything. Shel Silverstein doesn't follow any set rules: there's no special name for the form and meter of this poem. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, as well as classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit.Rhyme! Rhythm! Rhetorical flare! Yep, there's no shortage of all that in "Where the Sidewalk Ends," but Shel Silverstein 's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back.
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