Shel Silverstein Poetry Analysis

Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois on the twenty fifth day of September of 1930. He began his art of drawing and writing at a very tender age. Among the arts he was specialized in included being a cartoonist, writing poems, performing, playwriting; he also became a recording artist. Moreover, he was a Grammy-winning and a nominated song writer. He is better known for writing iconic books that involve poetry and prose especially for the young readers. His poetry was technically written hence they are very appealing to the readers. He wrote very many poems during his time as an artist among them was the; Mask, Underface, Hug O'War, Jake Says and Colors et cetra. The great number of the poems he wrote is owed to the fact that he began writing at a tender age. Therefore, in this paper I will specifically analyze the extent to which Silverstein has exploited the use of imagery throughout most of his poems.

Shel was an exceptional poet who stood as a talent person not only by the many things he did but also by the way he used literary devices such as imagery in most of his poems. The first of his poems with imagery was the; Mask. In this poem there are two characters portrayed holding up two masks that the poet defines as emotionless. The masks are so huge that it bars the characters behind these two

The war is used to represent certain hindrances to freedom. Nevertheless, there are two kinds of wars that are compared in this poem, the tug of war and the hug of war. The tug of war is described as the troubled side of life where there are killings and gradual fights. The poet used the image of a tug of war to discourage people from engaging into such activities. The tug of war is compared to a hug of war which in contrast is portrayed as a peaceful side of life. The poet describes the hug of war as a region where there is lots of love and a lot of peace. He therefore, encourages people to embrace