Shel Silverstein

Backward Bill

Backward Bill - meaning Summary

A World Turned Upside-down

This poem sketches a comic portrait of Backward Bill, whose life runs in reverse: his house, habits, speech, and relationships are deliberately inverted. The narrator lists absurd details with a matter-of-fact tone, turning everyday norms into playful nonsense. The effect is humorous and whimsical rather than threatening, inviting readers to enjoy language and logic flipped inside out while gently parodying conventional behavior.

Read Complete Analyses

Backward Bill, Backward Bill, He lives way up on Backward Hill, Which is really a hole in the sandy ground (But that's a hill turned upside down). Backward Bill's got a backward shack With a big front porch that's built out back. You walk through the window and look out the door And the cellar is up on the very top floor. Backward Bill he rides like the wind Don't know where he's going but sees where he's been. His spurs they go 'neigh' and his horse it goes 'clang,' And his six-gun goes 'gnab,' it never goes 'bang.' Backward Bill's got a backward pup, They eat their supper when the sun comes up, And he's got a wife named Backward Lil, 'She's my own true hate,' says Backward Bill. Backward Bill wears his hat on his toes And puts on his underwear over his clothes. And come every payday he pays his boss, And rides off a-smilin' a-carryin' his hoss.

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