My Favourite Poet

Hey,
Well, I remember in primary school, when we would read our textbooks with many poems inside, and I was particularly fascinated by one poet - Shel Silverstein (1930-1999) . So now, I shall share a bit about him, and hopefully you would, like me, see the beauty in this wonderful poet.

Do you know that, amazingly, Shel Silverstein never studied poetry like other poets? Pretty hard to believe, considering the fact that his poems can be compared with the likes of other poets that studied poetry, or maybe even better than the others. Having not studied poetry like the other poets, he had to develop a style of his own, and my, what an unusual style he developed. His poems were laid-back and conversational, occasionally having some profanitie and slangs. And that, I feel, is what made me feel so attracted to his poems.

Shel Silverstein never intended to write poems for children when he first started his career. His editor, however, encouraged him to do so and after writing his first book which was filled with what we called "silly but unique" ideas and poems, he realised his passion for writing for children. A quote by Otto Penzler says, "his unmistakable illustrative style is another crucial element to his appeal. Just as no writer sounds like Shel, no other artist's vision is as delightfully, sophisticatingly cockeyed". All of us readers would have to admit, while his poems may sounds ridiculous, they are very enthralling to read, us being lost in the world Shel Silverstein has painted in his poems.

Shel was not only a poet and an author, he was also a cartoonist, a musician, a composer, a singer-songwriter and a screenwriter. These probably made him become a wonderful poet as he was able to use the skills in these different areas to combine to form a poem like no other. He wrote famous songs like "A boy named Sue" and sketches like "One Tennis Shoe". Late in his life,his favorite places such as Greenwich Village, Key West, Martha’s Vineyard, and Sausalito, California, where he continued to write beautiful poems, songs etc. He died in 1999 in Key West, Florida. It was a rather sad loss of a genius in illustration through words, and a person that no one would be able to replace.

Some examples of his poems are: If the World was Crazy, Mr Grumpledump's song and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Hope you would take some time to read his poems and be like everyone else that had read his poems, be lost in a magical world created by Shel Silverstein.

Thanks for reading. Special thanks to wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shel_Silverstein) and poets.org(too long an address) for providing me with all the valuable information:)