Poetic and Plain
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How can something be both poetic and plain?
Good question. If you tend to think of poetry as flowery and fanciful, "plain" would seem like a very strange descriptor indeed. But we don't mean poetic like John Keats. We mean poetic like William Carlos Williams.
Silverstein's brand of poetry uses straightforward language that still manages to appeal to the senses. In the first pages, the phrase "gather her leaves," which is very soft, is accompanied by several repetitions of hard "c" sounds: "come," "crowns," "king," and "climb." These words help us hear the crunch of the fall leaves the boy is gathering…and of the apples he eats.
Later in the book, the use of the phrase "I want" (41)—which, when repeated, sounds almost like a moan—communicates the boy's sadness long before he points it out himself on page 46. So, you can see, there is poetry at work here.
But the language is also plain. There are few words of more than one syllable, and there are no words that require definitions, even for very young children.
This combination of words that are both poetic and plain allows Silverstein to communicate the story on multiple levels simultaneously. It is at once a simple tale of a boy and a tree, a nostalgic commentary on the fleeting nature of youth and happiness, and an in-depth analysis of the complex nature of relationships. Because the language doesn't force us in any specific direction, we get to choose our own adventure with this one and take our investigation into its meaning as deep as we like.