Shel Silverstein

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Shel Silverstein

While I was growing up as a child, there were three authors whose works I read
devoutly. One was Dr. Seuss and I liked his books so much that I am proud to say
I have read every one published. The second author who had a profound impact on
me was Jan Bernstein who is responsible for that loveable family The Bernstein
Bears. The third is a poet, which is odd because I never have liked poetry. Shel
Silverstein’s children’s poetry books were the only poetry I read until I
was twelve and are the one’s I still enjoy the most today as a young man. Shel
Silverstein is known to most as the critically acclaimed children’s poet, and
before this project, I was unaware of the other things he had done. Shel
Silverstein also did cartoons, served for his country during the Korean War,
wrote folk songs, played the guitar, and probably most shocking to me, were his
poems and drawings for Playboy Magazine which depicted fairly gruesome sexual
acts as well as drug use, especially his own. Life experience seems to be the
influence for his NC-17 rated material but I was curious to who influenced his
witty, lyrical children’s pieces. When studying Silverstein’s poetry, you
can see how the nonsense subjects and rhymes look similar to Edward Lear’s
nonsense poetry of one hundred and fifty years earlier and how the poetry of
Ogden Nash, which Silverstein might have possibly read as a child, had
influences on Shel’s own pieces. However, the conclusion I have reached is
purely hypothetical. Shel Silverstein once said he had no influences on his
poetic style. In a 1975 interview with Jean Merciar, published in the February
24, 1975 issue of Publisher’s Weekly, Silverstein said, “When I was kid- 12,
14, around there- I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit
with the girls. But I couldn’t play ball, I couldn’t dance. Luckily the
girls didn’t want me; not much I could do about that. So I started to draw and
to write. I was also lucky that I didn’t have anybody to copy, be impressed
by. I had developed my own style, I was creating before I knew there was a
Thurber, a Benchley, a Price and a Steinberg. I never even saw their work till I
was around thirty. By the time I got to where I was attracting girls, I was
already into work, and it was more important to me. Not that I wouldn’t rather
make love, but the work has become a habit” Even though Shel says nobody
influenced his artistic abilities it is hard to believe that. Especially when
you see how ...

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