The poem depicts a fantasy machine that could magically do a child's homework. The machine spews out an answer that the child narrator himself knows is wrong, mocking the idea that a machine can do a better job. Imagery in both "Wild Strawberries" and in "Homework Machine" is reflective of a child's imagination: the universal wish that homework would disappear; the tendency to take adult terms literally and therefore humorously.
Eloise Greenfield also relies heavily on musicality to empower her poems. Her poem "Way Down in the Music" is an obvious affirmation of the poet's appreciation of the potential power of music on the minds of young children. Less reliant on formal rhyme schemes than Silverstein, Greenfield's poems are also freer in verse. The strength of her poems to capture the inner workings of a child's mind is precisely in their lack of formality and Greenfield's liberal use of novel words. Greenfield frequently employs onomatopoeia in her poetry: for...
Moreover, young children make up their own languages and their own realities: a set of toothpicks can be transformed into a standing army while the innocuous sounds of engines and sprinklers are transformed into blips and bleeps from outer space. Greenfield captures this tendency in her poems. Greenfield, like Silverstein, also sometimes arranges words on the page to create poems that appeal to the eyes as well as to the ears.
Works Cited
Greenfield, Eloise. "Way Down in the Music," "Fun," and "Riding on the Train." From Honey I Love and Other Poems by Eloise Greenfield.
Silverstein, Shel. "Homework Machine," "Wild Strawberries," and "Gumeye Ball." From a Light in the…
