Plastic
Plastic - meaning Summary
Satire of Artificiality
Shel Silverstein’s short comic song sketches how artificial substitutes replace the natural. In two episodes—a termite baffled by a plastic house and a narrator admiring a woman who admits to being "plastic"—the poem treats synthetic materials and cosmetic artifice as humorous yet unsettling signs of a culture trading authenticity for imitation. The tone is playful, satirical, and quietly critical of modern superficiality.
Read Complete AnalysesOh a little bitty termite you know he come knockin' knockin' on my front door Well he walked right in sat right down started chewin' on the kitchen floor You know he chewed out the walls and the ceilings and the halls Lord knows he tried But he kept gettin' thinner and he never got no dinner and finally he sat up and cried He said it's plastic yeah he said it's plastic Well you know it ain't no wood and it can't do me no good Because it's plastic he said it's plastic You know that everything's gonna be plastic by and by Yeah an early one day in the month of May I went down to the beach You know there were beauties and cuties in little bathin' suities And all of them within my reach Then a 38-24-36 miss just happened to be passin' my way I said please don't think I'm nervy but you look so very curvy Please tell me how you got that way She said it's plastic she said it's just plastic She said it's pretty as can be but you know that it ain't me Because it's plastic she said it's plastic everything's gonna be plastic by and by
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