Poets, their lives, works, and literary contributions. Poetic structures and techniques have separate sections.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic is mainly a collection of what?
The title poem puts the speaker outside a dark house, noticing a light and addressing the person inside.
Who wrote the children's poetry collection Where the Sidewalk Ends?
Silverstein also drew the book's black-and-white illustrations, pairing his own pictures with his poems.
In Shel Silverstein's poem about Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, which chore does Sarah refuse?
The garbage pile drives away Sarah's neighbors and friends before she finally agrees to take it out.
In Shel Silverstein's "Sick," what makes Peggy Ann McKay decide to go out and play?
Peggy invents a long list of ailments to avoid school, so her symptoms disappear once she realizes there is no school that day.
In Shel Silverstein’s The Missing Piece, what does the main character search for?
After finding a perfect fit, the character rolls so fast that it loses time for the small pleasures of the journey.
Shakespeare’s sonnets most often use which meter?
An iamb pairs a weak beat with a strong one; pentameter usually places five such pairs in a line.
Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree centers on a boy’s relationship with what?
The tree gives the boy apples, branches, and its trunk as the boy grows older.
Which feeling does Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 call "an ever-fixed mark"?
The sonnet compares faithful love to a star that guides ships through uncertain seas.
Which Johnny Cash hit did Shel Silverstein write?
Cash’s famous live recording captures a father explaining that the difficult name was meant to make his son tough.
In Shel Silverstein’s poem "Boa Constrictor," what is happening to the speaker?
The poem follows the snake’s progress up the speaker’s body, turning a frightening event into a comic countdown.