Questions for Clooney The Clown by Shel Silverstein

1. Explain the Irony in this poem.

Clooney has all the requirements of being a clown. He has big shoes, small hat, a green dog, in short he could be a good clown. He tried to do tricks that was meant to be funny but the audience do not feel that it is funny. The audience even said "Go back to bed"

But when he tried to show the frustration, depression, rejection that he goes through. When he tells the audience about his life, the audience laughs hysterically at him. Clooney was trying to be serious, he was showing his frustration toward life, yet the audience take it as a joke and laughs at him. What Clooney really needs is acceptance and moral support from the audience, yet he gets what he always wants to achieve for a long time but not now. Being funny

2. Does Shel silverstein manage to convey some harsh realities in this poem?

It is never easy to tell someone the truth about us and let them truly understand how we feel. They will never be able to step in our shoes as everyone lives a different life. However they are willing to accept the lies that portray us. An example is when someone that is in a has a totally different life from others lie to people to gain acceptance such as saying that he is rich so that others will befriend him. However is you tell them the truth, like if that person is poor, people will reject him for what he.

3. What poetic devices has the poem used to effectively convey his message.

Alliteration: It is used many times im the poem. for example from line 24 to 27, it all begins with they

Onomatopoeia: Words like 'hah-hah' and 'hee-hee' are used to give us the image of people laughing at the Clooney

Imagery: imagery is used to give us a clearer picture about Clooney. When the audience laughs at Clooney, they said that "they laughed all day, they laughed all week, theylaughed until they had a fit, until their jackets split, they laughter spread for miles around" it could not be possible true but this example of hypobolism and it gives us a picture of the audience's laughter magnitude.