Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

Published by Harper & Row Jr Books/Evil Eye Music, Inc: New York, NY, 1974.

Elise, Ezekiel and I were recently house-sitting for my parents, and I came across it on one of their bookshelves. It is a book I first read when I was five (this particular copy of the book, as well, which has a written dedication to my family in the front from the person who gave it to us), and I loved it, and learned a lot of it by heart. I can still quote numerous poems from it verbatim.

I don't read a lot of poetry. By now, anyone who has read my reviews regularly will have picked that up! This book, however, is a favourite of mine.

How come I love this so much, when a lot of poetry leaves me cold?

Well, Shel Silverstein is a very funny poet, along with being quite witty, and at times, surprisingly deep.

So, we get a silly poem like 'The Battle', which in its entirety, reads:

"Would you like to hear
Of the terrible night
When I bravely fought the - 
No?
Alright."

And we recognise it as silly, but it's also got a lot of irony to it.

We get poems like 'The Crocodile's Toothache' and 'The Bagpipe Who Didn't Say No' that have a witty rhyme to them, as well as punch-lines of sorts. 'Sick' presents 'Little Peggy Ann McKay' who has a ridiculously long list of symptoms that will prevent her from going to school. When she realises it is Saturday, however, she immediately interrupts her complaining and leaves to play outside.

And then we also get some that are more thoughtful whilst still being humorous. 'Lester' is a poem about someone who gets a wish "from the goblin who lives in the banyan tree" and then spends the rest of his life wishing for more wishes, eventually dying and leaving piles of wishes scattered around. 'The Generals' presents two generals, General Clay and General Gore, who announce that neither of them wants to fight a war with the other, and begin planning a day at the beach, only to decide in the end that its too much work, and instead kill each other.

Shel Silverstein is mostly known for writing The Giving Tree (which I have never actually read) and writing the Johnny Cash song 'A Boy Named Sue.' Where The Sidewalk Ends, though maybe not as well known as those examples, is a great collection of poetry, and one I am so glad I revisited.

Completed 31 January 2026.

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