Shel Silversteins’ Mer-Maid is a memorable poem from many peoples childhood, while entertaining to children has a much deeper message. Mer-Maid is a simplistic poem that narrates a group of supposed children’s catching a mermaid, their life with her, and eventual realization that the mermaid misses her natural habitat. Although, a more complex explanation reveals that Shel Silverstein describes the internal sorrow that occurs when a person is forcefully removed from their home, despite the external cheerfulness that they may project. Through the exploration of Shel Silversteins’; voice, sound, and word choice in their order reveals, as many of his poems, that a more complex message is meant to be received for those who are older. The voice
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Mer-Maid follows this pattern with each line rhyming with the following in majority of the poem, lines 1 through 10. However Shel Silverstein breaks this pattern in lines 11 and 12, to where neither line rhymes with each other or with any other line in the poem. This also breaks the tempo of the poem, following a pull and push tempo, with the last two lines becoming more like sentences on their own. This shows the audience that the speaker is slowly coming to the realization that the mermaid might not be happy; although the poem never addresses any deeper emotional connection between the speaker and the mermaid. Mer-Maid provides the audience of a joyous adoptable family until the speaker witnesses the mermaid crying as she misses her original …show more content…
In Mer-Maid, Shel Silverstein, never goes beyond a basic second grade level of reading and even throws in slang throughout the poem, such as “lookin’”(11) and “’neath”(7). The choice for an informal diction also helps with identifying the speaker, a child which would project onto the reader of innocence. Mer-Maid also never tells the audience any feelings that the mermaid might be feeling or any events through her own eyes, potentially because Shel Silverstein did not want to show the audience any true or complex emotions; both of which would reveal the mermaids’ true thoughts. This poem projects a story through a child’s eyes, those of innocence, with the word choice to follow the speakers age and state of
Mer-Maid follows this pattern with each line rhyming with the following in majority of the poem, lines 1 through 10. However Shel Silverstein breaks this pattern in lines 11 and 12, to where neither line rhymes with each other or with any other line in the poem. This also breaks the tempo of the poem, following a pull and push tempo, with the last two lines becoming more like sentences on their own. This shows the audience that the speaker is slowly coming to the realization that the mermaid might not be happy; although the poem never addresses any deeper emotional connection between the speaker and the mermaid. Mer-Maid provides the audience of a joyous adoptable family until the speaker witnesses the mermaid crying as she misses her original …show more content…
In Mer-Maid, Shel Silverstein, never goes beyond a basic second grade level of reading and even throws in slang throughout the poem, such as “lookin’”(11) and “’neath”(7). The choice for an informal diction also helps with identifying the speaker, a child which would project onto the reader of innocence. Mer-Maid also never tells the audience any feelings that the mermaid might be feeling or any events through her own eyes, potentially because Shel Silverstein did not want to show the audience any true or complex emotions; both of which would reveal the mermaids’ true thoughts. This poem projects a story through a child’s eyes, those of innocence, with the word choice to follow the speakers age and state of