Where the Sidewalk Ends

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1974

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is divided into three stanzas with a total of 16 lines; the first two stanzas are fairly consistent and each have six lines, while the third stanza is a quatrain of four lines that deviates slightly from the set pattern. The poem uses extensive rhyme and rhythmic language designed to be read out loud; however, the rhyme scheme and meter are not consistent from beginning to end. The rhythmic structure of the poem is as loose and erratic as a child’s imagination, even as it adheres to traditional principles like true rhymes (in which the stressed vowel and any subsequent sounds are the same) rather than favoring slant rhymes or near rhymes (in which the sounds are similar but not identical), as is more popular in contemporary poetry. Moreover, the rhythm of the poem can vary depending on how it is read out loud; this creates a truly personal and fluid experience for the reader.

The first stanza features a standalone line: “There is a place where the sidewalk ends” (Line 1), which has no direct rhyme within the same stanza. However, the closing sound/word is repeated at the end of each subsequent stanza: “to the place where the sidewalk ends” (Line 12) and “the place where the sidewalk ends” (Line 16). This creates a repeated refrain that encapsulates the body of the poem. In the first stanza, the second and last line end on a slant rhyme: “begins” and “wind” (Lines 2, 6); the remaining three lines within the stanza create a true rhyme: “white,” “bright,” and “flight” (Lines 3, 4, 5).

The second stanza follows a similar rhyme scheme, with the first line standing alone, the second and last lines constituting a true rhyme instead of a slant rhyme (“bends” and “ends” [Lines 8, 12]), and the remaining three rhyming together (“grow,” “slow,” and “go” [Lines 9-11]). The final stanza is shortened from six lines to four, and reads as though the first two lines were removed from the rhyme scheme. Of the three rhyming lines in the stanza, two borrow words from the preceding one (“slow” and “go” [Lines 13, 14]). This gives the poem a sense of continuation and unity.

The meter has a heavy, nursery-rhyme-style rhythm, though it varies from forms like iambic tetrameter, with four instances of a stressed syllable preceded by an unstressed syllable (“And there | the sun | burns crim | son bright” [Line 4]), to anapestic tetrameter, with four instances of a stressed syllable preceded by two unstressed syllables (“we shall walk | with a walk | that is mea | sured and slow” [Line 10]). While the pacing of the poem varies through these metrical choices, each stanza delivers a regularity consistent with the theme of walking toward something and exploring the poem’s meaning out loud.

Alliteration

Alliteration refers to the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Like many poems for young readers, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” uses alliteration extensively to create a sense of rhythm and unity, while also making the poem easier to learn by heart. These alliterative phrases give the poem a feeling of cohesion and forward momentum, as if each line is spilling directly into the next. Examples in the first stanza include the repeated “b” sounds in “before the street begins” (Line 2) and the repeated “gr” sounds in “there the grass grows” (Line 3). In each instance, the repeated hard consonants draw attention to the visual images. A similar “br” sound occurs in “the sun burns crimson bright” (Line 4), and the poem uses repeated consonant sounds in “crimson” and “cool” (Line 4, 6).

The second stanza uses alliteration in the phrase “this place where the smoke blows black” (Line 7), repeating the bubble-like “bl” sound. There is also consonance (repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in a word) present in the repeated hard “k” in “smoke” and “black” (Line 7). The line “Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow” (Line 9) uses alliteration in the double “p” sounds, as well as the double “f” sounds in “asphalt flowers.” The last three lines of the second stanza use “w” sounds extensively to create a continuous rolling motion in “we shall walk with a walk,” “watch where the chalk-white arrows,” and again in the closing “sidewalk” (Lines 10-12). This pattern continues into the third stanza, which repeats these same sounds from the preceding stanzas. In this way, the three stanzas attain a song-like, nursery-rhyme quality that carries the core themes fluidly from beginning to end.

Imagery

Silverstein’s poem uses complex and contrasting imagery that engages multiple senses and creates a heightened sense of an imaginary other world. The first stanza in particular introduces several unique images to describe the place “where the sidewalk ends” (Line 1), which the speaker is urging the reader to discover. Here, “the grass grows soft and white” and “the sun burns crimson bright” (Lines 3, 4), in contrast to the sensations and colors of the world we know.

Soft grass is an appealing image in any context, but the addition of white sets it apart as something unknown. It is possible the white here is a reference to snow, another soft and whimsical landscape enjoyed by children. By giving this quality instead to grass, the poem creates a place where the wonder of snow can be enjoyed without the cold, excessive clothing, or any other drawbacks that come with it.

The image of a crimson sun is one usually only seen through a haze, either through the edges of sunrise and sunset or through a filter like a forest fire. This suggests that this world is in some way on the edge of the world we know, or being viewed through a filter of the mind. The first stanza closes with an example of olfactory imagery: “to cool in the peppermint wind” (Line 6). This line uses the impression of scent and tactile sensation to further enhance the whimsy and playfulness of the setting, referencing a popular childhood flavor or candy.

The second stanza introduces darker images, such as the black smoke, dark asphalt streets, and “pits” of uncertainty (Line 9). Unlike the colorful and multi-sensory images of the first stanza, this stanza becomes a study in monochrome: The black smoke is juxtaposed against the “chalk-white arrows” (Line 11), and the “asphalt flowers” (Line 9) create an image of the natural world without scent or potential for growth.