My Poem Analysis "Growing Down"
Many of Silverstein’s poems are very short and funny. There are some longer ones that try to send a message. The poem “Growing Down,” one of the longer poems in the collection Every Thing On It, is one of those poems. The poem is told by children describing “old Mr. Brown, the crabbiest man in our whole darn town.” They call him “Grow-Up Brown” because he is always telling them to “Grow up, grow up, oh grow up.” He asks them a long list of questions like “Why must you shout and fuss and fight?” or “Why can’t you keep dirt off your clothes?” But one day the children tell the reader that they reply to him “Hey, why don’t you try growing down?” and they ask him twice as many questions like “Why don’t you jump and yell and scream?” and ”Why don’t you not wash your hands?” Mr. Brown, realizing his crabbiness decides to listen to the children and grow down. “He started making weirdie faces,” and “He rolled down hills, he climbed up trees.” In the end he realizes that “It’s much more fun, this growin’ down.” When reading the poem you feel like it takes place in present time, in an idyllic small town where everyone knows each other. According to some of the activities Mr. Brown is enjoying around town it seems to be summer time. The message or lesson that this poem is trying to teach is very clear. It has the common theme of many of Silverstein’s poems of adult versus child in the child’s point of view. This poem explores the theme further by showing the innocence of youth and for adults to return to that innocence. This poem seems to be more geared toward teaching adults a lesson more than children. It reminds adults of what it means to be children and that children should enjoy themselves as they are. Adults should not try to make them grow up too fast and should just let them be. And to go further adults should try to act more like children once in a while and not let everything bother them. Let the everyday stresses and expectations of life slide sometimes and just enjoy the moment. It should more specifically tell parents to spend more time being silly with their children. They will be much happier for it and most importantly will their children. This is a very serious message that Silverstein is trying to teach. However, like all his poems he tells it with humour. The poem is very light hearted and silly. It gives crazy and exaggerated images of growing down that will make the reader laugh. The poem gives the impression that the main character has really taken to heart that he should change. There are 11 lines of text in the poem of things Mr. Brown is asking the kids to do, there are 27 lines of what the kids suggest to Mr. Brown, and there are 36 lines of the silly things Mr. Brown is doing to grow down. This shows how much fun he is having and he is taking it much further than the kids even suggested. In the end he is converted and he is “Shouting to all the folks in town. It’s much more fun, this growin’ down.” This poem is an example of rhyming poetry. Each pair of lines rhyme. The poem has three long stanzas with each stanza longer than the one before it. The poem is written for children and uses very simple vocabulary, single syllables and with the rhyming words above and below each other which makes it very easy to read. It has a lot of repeating words. The first stanza starts almost every line with “Why can’t…” or “Why must…” or “Why do…” The second stanza begins each line with “Why don’t you…” The third stanza varies a little. The simple structure of this poem can make the reader read it quickly. This helps to give the poem a very happy and upbeat feel to it. This is the perfect type of poem for children to read on their own or to be read aloud to even very young children. The poem also contains a lot of irony, it shows the huge difference between the way adults and the way children act. This part of it makes it very appealing to adults. Shel Silverstein’s “Growing Down” is written very simple in language and form. He manages to teach a very important lesson is a funny way that can relate to both children and adults. It is very fun to read, the imagery makes you laugh all while making the reader feel good and with a newfound resolve to enjoy life more. |