Spaghetti
Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,
Up to my elbows--up to my face,
Over the carpet and under the chairs,
Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,
Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,
Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.
The party is ruined, I'm terribly worried,
The guests have all left (unless they're all buried).
I told them, "Bring presents." I said, "Throw confetti."
I guess they heard wrong
'Cause they all threw spaghetti!
--Shel Silverstein
It seems cliche to use Shel Silverstein as my poet of choice, but his work is just that incredible. Growing up I used to read all of his poetry. One of my new favorites is Runny Babbit. What makes his poetry in particular is his ability to reach children through the use of playful language and nonsense topics. Poetry is a hard topic to introduce to students, as they find it difficult to understand and enjoy. This is not so with Shel Silverstein's work. This poem in particular is a favorite of mine because of it's silly nature and I'm also highly attracted to rhyming. Shel Silverstein uses the most outrageous terms to rhyme. His poetry is a great way to increase vocabulary! In this poem he rhymes two lines at a time, but this varies from poem to poem. The tone builds up as the climax of the poem is reached at the end. Kids are intrigued by the fact that spaghetti seems to be overflowing, but there is no definite answer as to why until the end of the poem is reached. Once the climax is reached, the reader can then recognize the silliness of the poem. A bit of alliteration is included in the poem in the line that says "Making the sofa a mad mushy mess." This adds to the playfulness of the poem. Shel Silverstein is an amazing poet and his poetry is a great way to get kids involved with a topic that seems to be a bit more difficult for students.