Poems Answers

Hello everyone!
Today i have read three poems in class, and would now be sharing with you my feelings on it, by answering the question for each respective poem.

The Little Boy and The Old Man
1)The underlying message that is being converted in this poem is that the port is trying to convey a message to the readers that sometimes, people get too busy with their work etc, such that they start paying no attention to the young and the old, thus making them feel lonely, useless and neglected.

2)Shel Silverstein used irony to bring out the message more clearly. It is ironic as the old man is a grown up, and is supposed to be comforting the boy, as he should have experience of being a parent as well. However, it turned out that actually, he is also a victim of the "neglection". For example, throughout the poem, the old man is named "the old man"but however, at the end of the poem, when he said "I know what you mean", the poem changed it to "the little old man", showing that he is also experiencing the little boy's plight as well. Rhyming is also used to make the poem more effective in conveying the message.

Messy Room
1)Yes, I can say that the poem is humorous. The poem is really ironic, as the speaker appears to be criticizing the room relentlessly, but however, in the end, it tuned our the the room actually belongs to the speaker, himself.  Also, there is a repetition of the sentence "whosever room this should be ashamed!", showing that the speaker is in fact criticizing himself as well, which also elaborates on the irony in the poem.

2) The lazy aspect of the human characteristics has been portrayed in this poem. Personification has been used in the poem as well. to emphasize my point. "A lizard named Ed" shows that the lizard is seen very regularly around in the room, and even has a name, exaggerating the messiniess of the room, and the laziness of the speaker. Also, this poem is trying to show that humans are hypocrites, commenting and criticizing on others, when they themselves do exactly the same thing. This is showed, by the use of irony.

Cloony The Clown
1)The irony is that when Cloony The Clown tries to be funny, everyone does not find it humorous, and hurls insults at him. However, on the other hand, when he explains to people why he cannot be funny, everyone finds happiness in his misery, and started laughing and guffawing. The quotes "that is not what i meant. i'm funny just by accident.", serves as evidences for my point.

2)Yes, Shel Silverstein manages to convey some harsh realities in this poem.He is trying to say that when some people are very sadistic, and only finds happiness in other's miseries. When jokes and told and funny performances are acted out, they just dont laugh at all. However, when people tell them something sad and gloomy, they will laugh at the weak points of that person, and start verbally abusing him. This is very common in our society, today. An example would be something that can be seen in schools frequently. Bullying. Bullies do not laugh with you at your jokes but instead, they will find out your weaknesses, and attack you from it.

3)Personification, irony, and rhymes have been used to effectively convey the poets message, which is that there are many people in today's society that finds happiness in other's miseries. An example of the personification would be that Cloony told the people about his "pain, rain and cold"and the "darkness in his soul", which exaggerates his unhappiness in him that he told others, and later on, exaggerated the reaction of the people upon hearing it, by stating things like "laughed until they had a fit". Also, in every 2 lines, there would be a rhyme. For example, in the last two lines, the words "outside" and "cried" rhymes. Also, i have already touched on irony in the previous questions and thus would not be repeating again.

this is the end of it. tomorrow i promise that i will post another blog post tomorrow to talk about which of these three poems can i identify the most.((((:

Best regards,
Mervin