I have just recently gained a massive appreciation for Shel Silverstein.
As I’ve been teaching ESL, I’ve become aware that his book “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is often used by ESL teachers looking for fun and accessible poems for children.
I’ve just gone through a multi-day teaching component on poetry. As usual, the poems that we were set to use were either too dry or too sophisticated for the students. Forewarned is forearmed, and in this case, I’d taught this component before and had prepared a whole bunch of other poems to teach, some that even used the same vocabulary (the students have vocab tests).
I took a bunch of poems from Shel’s book (It sells widely in South Korea for less than $3). Ickle Me, Pickle Me Tickle Me Too; Boa Constrictor; For Sale; and Sick are standard in-class fare. Each is funny, and although they can appear long, the students read them well and get the sense of the rhythm and rhyme fairly quickly. Paired students reading alternate lines worked well with Sick.
The book is also full of his pen-and-ink drawings accompanying the poems. In some cases, such as The Planet of Mars, the cartoon is the punchline.
Although I've used this book, I’ve never really read it – it’s just been a resource that I’ve fished from when needed. So when I was looking for fresh material this time, I was shocked to discover that I had heard one of his poems before, not as a poem, but as a song.
You see, Shel Silverstein wrote The Unicorn, a song made world famous by the Irish Rovers. You know the one, God tells Noah to build the ark and take two of each animal, but the unicorn foolishly won’t come on board. I was surprised like you wouldn’t believe. I was also disappointed, as it wasn’t on my iPod (go figure) and I couldn’t play it in class for my kids.
My kids dutifully read the poem, then – shock of shock – I sang the chorus for my students. If anyone needed any proof that I am a completely different person in the classroom, that’d be it.
With this newfound connectedness to Shel Silverstein, I decided to read up on him.
It turns out that I know even more of his work, and so probably do you. Johnny Cash sang a song called A Boy Called Sue. Written by Shel Silverstein that one was (use your best Yoda voice as you read that sentence).
He also wrote one of my favourite light-hearted songs, Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.
Marianne Faithful has covered his music, and he wrote or contributed to the musical scores of the films Montenegro, Thelma & Louise and the often overlooked Postcards from the Edge (based on Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher’s autobiography about growing up as an actress with a Hollywood legend as a mother [Debbie Reynolds, ask your mom. I had to ask mine.]).
All told an interesting man.
Oh, and if you have young kids, buy the book. It’ll do more make them love poetry than anything I’ve seen previously (some Odgen Nash can be OK too).
