Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me —
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.
This is the poem “LISTEN TO THE MUSTN'TS” in its entirety. It is a typical bit of Silverstein anti-conformist philosophy in that it is not overbearing. Silverstein has a delightful talent for instilling anti-authoritarian messages in his work that are covered with enough humor as to not see quite as anarchic as they are. In essence, this poem is call to children to NOT listen to everything he just wrote that they should listen to. Written another way and it becomes a political tract capable of great controversy.
And he grew a plug that looked like a tail
So we plugged in little Jim.
And now instead of him watching TV
We all sit around and watch him.
“JIMMY JET AND HIS TV SET” is about a little boy who actually transforms into a TV set. This is the result of his watching TV all day—from the early show to the late, late show. And what happens when this miraculous event is completed? The rest of the household known collectively as “we” sit around and watch Jimmy. The first stanza ends with a rather accusatory “He loved to watch his TV set / Almost as much as you.” Combined with the final stanza here, the implicit message of the poem is more than just accusatory. The message seems to be nothing less than that Jimmy Jet was allowed to watch TV so much because his parents weren’t paying any attention to him…until he became a TV.
Oh, if you're a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you're a bird, be an early early bird —
But if you're a worm, sleep late.
Here is an example of how a creative writer can take what is a familiar proverbial bit of wisdom and turn it around. The phrase “the early bird gets the worm” always cast the advice from the perspective of the bird. Silverstein here takes note that there are actually two pieces of advice which can be gleaned from that aphorism and in the noting it becomes obvious that most people never consider things from the perspective of the worm.
And some wild outlaws chased me
And they shot me in the side.
So I crawled into a wildcat's cave
To find a place to hide,
But some pirates found me sleeping there,
And soon they had me tied
To a pole and built a fire
Under me — I almost cried
Silverstein seems to be engaging in a bit of satire here which is directed toward the longstanding fictional trope that if the author states it is based on a true story, most of what happens can be assumed to be true. He takes this idea to its logical extreme by using the title “True Story” to tell a tale which piles an ever-increasingly unlikelihood upon unlikelihood until it gets to the ultimate unlikelihood as its closing punch line: “And you'll never guess what I did then — I DIED.”
Would you like to hear
Of the terrible night
When I bravely fought the—
No?
All right.
Another little satirical sword that punctures a longstanding trope. War stories have long been told by soldiers with the expectation that everybody wants to hear them. Of course, the reality is quite different. As strikingly explored in this little poem: not everyone really cares all that much about hearing old war stories.
