Shel Silverstein

Helping

Helping - meaning Summary

Help with Mixed Motives

Shel Silverstein's poem describes children helping one another in small domestic tasks, but each act of assistance often undoes or trivializes the other person’s work. The playful rhymes present a gentle irony: help can be reciprocal yet pointless, even harmful. The closing couplets state the central idea plainly — some help is genuinely useful, while other help is unnecessary or counterproductive, and we should recognize the difference.

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Agatha Fry, she made a pie And Christopher John helped bake it Christopher John, he mowed the lawn And Agatha Fry helped rake it Now, Zachary Zugg took out the rug And Jennifer Joy helped shake it Then Jennifer Joy, she made a toy And Zachary Zugg helped break it And some kind of help is the kind of help That helping's all about And some kind of help is the kind of help We all can do without

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