Mrs. Jester
ENGL 1102
October 1, 2012
Analysis of “Messy Room” by Shel Silverstein In the poem, “Messy Room” Shel Silverstein uses imagery, rhyme, and repetition in his poem to show the reader the real affects of a messy room. Silverstein in his poem wants us as the reader to feel how messy the room really was. In every line of his poem you can feel the imagery and really see how the room really looked. Silverstein is trying to make the reader feel like that’s how messy a room is if no one takes care of it. In line (1) and in line (13) Silverstein uses repetition, he says “Whoever room this is should be ashamed!” By doing this Silverstein is wanting the reader to feel like it’s there room not anyone else’s. He uses these choices of words to guilt the reader that whoever room this was, that they need to clean up there messy room. He is trying to make a point by repeating the same lines in his poem. Another poetic device Silverstein uses is imagery. In the poem Silverstein uses a lot of imagery to describe how messy the room is. In the poem lines (11)-(12) Silverstein is giving a brief description of how the room looked. He says, “A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed, and his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall” (Silverstein). Using those choices of words you can visual see how dirty this room is. You can kind of see it might be a teenager room or a college dorm room. But throughout the poem there are many other choices of imagery, too grasp the feeling of how messy our bedroom can be. Also in the poem Silverstein used some rhyme in his poem. But not every line in the poem rhymed. It was usually the even number lines were the one that rhymed. For example lines (2) and (4) Silverstein says, “His underwear is hanging on the lamp, And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp” (Silverstein). Silverstein wanted the reader to feel how messy this person room was. All throughout the poem Silverstein was bashing how
Cited: Silverstein, Shell. "Best Poems Encyclopedia ." www.best-poems.net. N.p., (2008-2011). Web. 3 Oct 2012.