Shel Silverstein: Difference between revisions

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''ANYTHING can be.'' }}
 
Shel Silverstein is best known as an author of offbeat children's poetry. He also wrote picture books and song lyrics (most famously "[[Johnny Cash (Music)|A Boy Named Sue]]"). Fans of his mainstream work may be rather [[He Also Did|stunned to hear]] that many of his songs are ''very'' adult in tone, and that he personally was a real-life [[Chick Magnet]] who lived in the actual [[Playboy|Playboy Mansion]].
 
His books include:
* ''A Light in the Attic'' (poetry collection)
* ''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' (poetry collection)
* ''[[The Giving Tree (Literature)|The Giving Tree]]'' (picture book)
* ''Uncle Shelby's ABZs'' (alphabet book consisting of [[Blatant Lies]] and intentionally terrible advice)
* ''Wordless Dances'' (collection of adult-themed cartoons)
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* [[Dancing Pants]]: The [[Trope Namer]] is a poem in ''Where The Sidewalk Ends''.
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: See [[Eats Babies]] below.
* [[Death Byby Gluttony]]: "Pie Problem"
* [[Death Byby Irony]]:
** The poem "Fear (Barnabas Browning)", where the titular character is so afraid of drowning that he refuses to leave his room. He dies by {{spoiler|literally crying an ocean and drowning in his own tears}}.
** The poem "Ladies First", in which Pamela Purse is always using the title excuse for her selfishness. When the group gets caught by cannibals and are about to be eaten by the king, she still goes, "Ladies first!"
* [[Dual-Meaning Chorus]]: The song "I Got Stoned And I Missed It".
* [[Duck|Duck!]]: The poem "Web-Foot Woe".
* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: "A Boy Named Sue".
* [[Eats Babies]]: "Someone Ate The Baby". {{spoiler|[[Unreliable Narrator|It was the narrator.]]}}
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* [[Flat World]]: The poem "The Edge of the World." The illustration for this poem is also on the cover to the collection ''Where the Sidewalk Ends.''
* [[Gag Penis]]: The song "Stacy Brown's Got Two".
* [[A Good Name for Aa Rock Band]]: It is one; there's a band called Silverstein.
* [[Hair Wings]]: He has a poem about a boy with ridiculously long hair who was mercilessly teased about it until his weeping caused it to flap like wings, carrying him into the air.
* [[Headphones Equal Isolation]]: The poem "Headphone Harold".
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* [[Naked People Are Funny]]: A number of his poems deal with states of undress, as well as the fact that some illustrations in his works feature images of characters being naked for apparently no reason.
* [[Neat Freak]]: The poem "Clean Gene".
* [[No Ending]]: A number of his poems end with the story unresolved, such as "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout". This trope was the whole ''point'' of his poem "Suspense", where a [[Damsel in Distress]] is [[Chained to Aa Railway]] by one villain, while [[The Hero]] is being held prisoner by another. And then a fifth character shows up, and it's unclear whether he's a hero or villain. "And a crash and a cry, and I'm sorry but I have forgotten the rest of the story" is the final line.
* [[Not a Mask]]: The poem "Best Mask?" is a rare example where the maskless person is the narrator.
* [[Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep]]: Parodied in "Prayer of the Selfish Child".
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* [[Was It Really Worth It?]]: Played for laughs in the poem "Big Eating Contest".
* [[When I Was Your Age]]: Amply demonstrated in the poem "When I Was Your Age".
* [[Who's Onon First?]]: The poem "The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt".
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: In the poem "The Monkey," several words are replaced with numbers. Many replacements are painfully forced.
 
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