Literature / A Light in the Attic

There's a light on in the attic.
Though the house is dark and shuttered,
I can see a flickerin' flutter,
And I know what it's about.
There's a light on in the attic.
I can see it from the outside,
And I know you're on the inside . . . lookin' out.

— "A Light in the Attic"

A Light in the Attic is a 1981 poetry collection written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. It contains 135 poems. The special edition, published 2009, contains an additional 12 poems.

Poems

Regular Edition

• Adventures of a Frisbee
• Almost Perfect
• Always Sprinkle Pepper
• Anchored
• Anteater
• Arrows
• Ations
• Backward Bill
• Batty
• Bear in There
• Blame
• Bored
• Buckin' Bronco
• Captain Blackbeard Did What?
• Catching
• Channels
• Clarence
• The Climbers
• Cloony the Clown
• Come Skating
• Crowded Tub
• Day After Halloween
• Deaf Donald
• Dinner Guest
• Dog's Day
• The Dragon of Grindly Grun
• Eight Balloons
• Examination
• Fancy Dive
• Fear
• The Fly Is In
• Friendship
• Frozen Dream
• God's Wheel
• Gooloo
• Gumeye Ball
• Hammock
• Have Fun
• Headache
• Here Comes
• Hiccup Cure
• Hinges
• Hippo's Hope
• Hitting
• Homework Machine
• Hot Dog
• How Many, How Much
• How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes
• How to Make a Swing With No Rope or Board or Nails
• Hula Eel
• Hurk
• If
• Importnt?
• In Search of Cinderella
• It's All the Same to the Clam
• It's Hot!
• Kidnapped!
• Ladies First
• A Light in the Attic
• Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony
• The Little Boy and the Old Man
• Longmobile
• The Lost Cat
• Magic Carpet
• The Man in the Iron Pail Mask
• The Meehoo With an Exactlywatt
• Memorizin' Mo
• Messy Room
• Monsters I've Met
• Moon-Catchin' Net
• Mr. Smeds and Mr. Spats
• Musical Career
• My Guitar
• The Nailbiter
• Never
• Nobody
• The Oak and the Rose
• One Two
• Outside or Underneath?
• Overdues
• The Painter
• Peckin'
• Picture Puzzle Piece
• Pie Problem
• The Pirate
• Play Ball
• Poemsicle
• Prayer of the Selfish Child
• Prehistoric
• Push Button
• Put Something In
• Quick Trip
• Reflection
• Rhino Pen
• Rockabye
• Rock 'n' Roll Band
• Senses
• Shadow Race
• Shaking
• Shapes
• Signals
• The Sitter
• Skin Stealer
• Snake Problem
• Snap!
• Somebody Has To
• Something Missing
• Sour Face Ann
• Spelling Bee
• Squishy Touch
• Standing Is Stupid
• Stop Thief!
• Strange Wind
• Superstitious
• Surprise!
• Suspense
• The Sword-Swallower
• They've Put a Brassiere on the Camel
• This Bridge
• Thumb Face
• Ticklish Tom
• Tired
• The Toad and the Kangaroo
• Tryin' On Clothes
• Turtle
• Tusk, Tusk
• Twistable, Turnable Man
• Union for Children's Rights
• Unscratchable Itch
• Wavy Hair
• What Did?
• Whatif
• Who Ordered the Broiled Face?
• Wild Strawberries?
• Zebra Question

Special Edition Extras

• Binky Blum
• Birthday
• The Books I Have Not Read
• Collecting
• Creative
• Exercisin' Hen
• Garbage Soup Recipe
• The Hungry TV Set
• Presents, Presents, Presents
• Rhoda's Dress
• The Snack
• Veggie Play

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Contains examples of:

• Absurdly-Long Limousine: It may or may not technically be a limousine, but "Longmobile" certainly fits the spirit of this trope.
  It's the world's longest car, I swear,
  It reaches from Beale Street to Washington Square.
  And once you get in it
  To go where you're going,
  You simply get out, 'cause you're there.
• All Girls Like Ponies: In "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony," Abigail sees a pony for sale that she wants, but her parents won't buy it for her. She eventually dies of heartbreak and her parents are devastated. The poem ends with the line "This is a good story to read to your parents when they won't buy you something you want."
• All Love Is Unrequited:
  • The poem "Deaf Donald" depicts a situation where a deaf boy tries to tell a girl that he loves her via sign language, but she doesn't understand and leaves in a huff.
  • The poem "In Search of Cinderella" explores the theme of unrequited love as Prince Charming expresses his continued affection for Cinderella despite his struggle to find her.
• Animal Jingoism: The poem "Surprise!" mentions the exotic pets that the grandfather gives to his grandchildren coming from different countries, such as turtles from Myrtle Beach, a cockatoo from Katmandu, an iguana from Rio, and a goat from Spain.
• Anxiety Dreams: The poem "Whatif" portrays a child's worries and fears about various possibilities and potential negative outcomes.
• Be the Ball: The poem "Play Ball" has the narrator describing his baseball team in great detail, finishing with telling the reader, "You can be the ball!"
• Big Eater: "Bear in There" humorously portrays the polar bear indulging in various food items found in the refrigerator, including meat, fish, butter, noodles, rice, soda, and ice. The bear's large appetite and enjoyment of food emphasize its voracious eating habits.
• Bittersweet Ending: "Deaf Donald" ends with Talkie Sue leaving Donald after failing to communicate with him, never knowing the true meaning behind his repeated "I Love You" sign.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The narrator in "Skin Stealer" is able to unzip their skin and unscrew their head.
• Blessed with Suck: The girl in the poem "Squishy Touch" has the ability to turn everything she touches into raspberry Jell-O, but it proves to be more of a burden than a gift.
• Blindfolded Trip: In "Kidnapped", the narrator describes being kidnapped and blindfolded so that they couldn't tell where they were being taken. (Granted, it is eventually revealed to be a child’s excuse for why they were late for school.)
• Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: In "Tusk, Tusk", a walrus gets braces to straighten his tusks, which results in an excessive and exaggerated appearance with a "tangle of wires and steel."
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In "The Sword-Swallower", while explaining Salomar's unique ability to swallow swords, the narrator expresses their aversion to such a stunt and instead chooses a simpler and less daring option.
• The Bully: In "Ladies First", Pamela Purse's behavior is characterized by rudeness, pushing, and grabbing, demonstrating a lack of consideration or empathy for others.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Or rather, "The PIE Is a Lie". The poem "Pie Problem" has the narrator contemplating the inevitability of death and the pleasure of having one more piece of pie.
• The Cassandra: In "Nobody", the narrator laments Nobody's disappearance and expresses their previous reliance on Nobody for various aspects of their life. The narrator's previous claims about Nobody's presence and importance were doubted or dismissed by others.
• Catch-22 Dilemma: In "Overdues", a man with an extremely overdue library book finds himself trapped between two undesirable options. Returning the book means facing a hefty fine, while hiding it further perpetuates his guilt and potentially leads to further consequences if discovered.
• Chain Reaction Destruction: "Ticklish Tom" is about a boy who is so ticklish that he rolls around when someone or something tickles him. Throughout the poem, Tom's laughter and rolling lead to a series of events that ultimately result in his unfortunate demise on the railroad tracks.
• The Comically Serious: In "Thumb Face", the face on the narrator's thumb laughs at everything the narrator does, regardless of the situation or the narrator's emotional state.
• Contrived Clumsiness: Recommended in "How Not To Have To Dry The Dishes":
  If you have to dry the dishes
  And you drop one on the floor —
  Maybe they won't let you
  Dry the dishes anymore.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: The poem "Sour Face Ann" depicts a woman who is impossible to satisfy. Despite getting the fur coat she wanted, she continues to complain because her coat is attracting fleas.
• Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: The poem "Headache" plays with the idea that having a tree growing out of one's head can be both worrisome and intriguing. The anticipation of seeing the tree in spring suggests a sense of curiosity and wonder despite the unusual and potentially negative situation.
• Cursed with Awesome: In the poem "Thumb Face", the narrator talks about a sentient face on his thumb that has a mind of its own and consistently finds humor in the narrator's actions.
• Crippling Overspecialization: In "Tusk, Tusk", the walrus's braces, meant to straighten his tusks, end up interfering with his ability to eat, thus impairing his ability to perform a basic biological function.
• The Cynic: In "Almost Perfect", Mary Hume's repeated use of "Almost perfect...but not quite" reflects a cynical outlook on life, always finding something to criticize or complain about.
• Death by Despair: The poem "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" concludes with Abigail's death, which is attributed to her broken heart caused by not getting the pony. Her extreme emotional distress and subsequent demise create a tragic ending.
• Death by Gluttony: In "Pie Problem", the narrator faces a dilemma: One more piece of pie will certainly kill him, but he will also die if he can't have it. He decides that, since his death is inevitable, he might as well enjoy the pie rather than go without.
• Death by Irony:
  • In "Fear", Barnabas Browning is so afraid of drowning that he refuses to leave his room. He dies by literally crying an ocean and drowning in his own tears.
  • The poem "Ladies First," in which a selfish girl named Pamela Purse is always using the title excuse to rudely interrupt others and take whatever she wants. When she and her friends get caught by cannibals during a jungle expedition and are about to be eaten by the king, she still goes, "Ladies first!"
• Debating Names: In "The Toad and the Kangaroo," a toad and a kangaroo agree to get married and have a child because it will be able to jump very far, but they can't agree on whether it should be called a Toadaroo, a Kangaroad, a Rangatoo, a Kangaree, etc. They get so frustrated with each other that they give up and go their separate ways.
  And the Toad had no more to say,
  And the Kangaroo just hopped away.
  And they never married or had a child
  That could jump a mountain or hop a mile.
  What a loss—what a shame—
  Just 'cause they couldn't agree on a name.
• Dem Bones: In "Day After Halloween," a salesman offers low prices on "skeletons, spirits and haunts"; he's overstocked with them now that the holiday's over.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The poem "Monsters I've Met" is about how the narrator has met various monsters in his life, but they wanted nothing more than small favors from him, much to his disappointment.
• Disabled Means Helpless: The poem "Stop, Thief!" explores the idea that the loss of knees and the inability to connect feet and legs renders the narrator immobile and unable to pursue the thief who stole them.
• The Ditz: The poem "They've Put a Brassiere on a Camel" portrays the individuals responsible for putting a bra on the camel as making other strange and questionable plans, such as insisting that pigs should wear pants.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The titular character in "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" dying from a broken heart sounds an awful lot like a euphemism for suicide.
• A Dog Ate My Homework: The narrator of "Blame" says he wrote an extremely wonderful book, but a goat ate it. He wrote a new book in a hurry, but it's not as good as the first one, so he tells people to blame the goat if they don't like the second book. Whether a goat really did eat the book is ambiguous. On one hand, it sounds a lot like a tired old excuse; on the other hand, the poem's illustration is a grinning goat with ripped book pages in its mouth, so maybe he's telling the truth after all.
• Dying Declaration of Love: In "Pie Problem", the narrator proclaims his love for pie and decides to have one more piece before his seemingly imminent death.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: Played with in the poem "Tryin' On Clothes", where a child tries on the dancer's shoes but finds them too loose and unsuitable for walking, ultimately finding comfort and satisfaction in being barefoot on the grass.
• Empty Swimming Pool Dive: The punchline of "Fancy Dive" is that the swimming pool that Melissa is diving into turns out to be empty.
• The Everyman: The poem "Twistable, Turnable Man" describes the man living a "passable life" with his wife and children, suggesting that he represents an ordinary, relatable individual.
• Exact Words: In "Have Fun", the narrator assures us that it's safe to swim in Pemrose Park because there are no sharks in it. The illustration shows an octopus in the lake instead.
• Extremely Overdue Library Book: "Overdues" is about a man who finds an overdue book that he's been keeping for 42 years, but doesn't know what to do since he doesn't want to pay the fine for it.
  What do I do?
  What do I do?
  This library book is 42
  Years overdue.
  I admit that it's mine
  But I can't pay the fine—
  Should I turn it in
  Or hide it again?
  What do I do?
  What do I do?
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • In "Fancy Dive", Melissa somehow forgets to make sure that there's water in the pool before doing an extremely complex dive into it. That is, assuming someone didn't drain the pool while she was diving...
  • The girl in the poem "Musical Career" encounters multiple obstacles while trying to play the piano. Initially, her hands cannot reach the keys, and later, her feet cannot reach the floor.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: The poem "Wild Strawberries?" speculates on the possibilities of training wild strawberries to perform tasks typically associated with animals, such as herding cows, pulling plows, or guarding the house.
• Fearless Fool: "Captain Blackbeard Did What?" portrays Captain Blackbeard's decision to shave off his intimidating beard, which was a symbol of his power and authority. By doing so, he loses the fear and respect he once commanded from his crew and others, leading to a change in their perceptions of him.
• Gone Horribly Right: In "Nobody", the narrator's reliance on Nobody has been so successful that Nobody has disappeared altogether. The unintended consequence of Nobody's disappearance leaves the narrator feeling lost and longing for their return.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In "Ladies First", Pamela Purse's habit of always demanding "ladies first" leads to trouble when she and her friends encounter Fry-'Em-Up Dan, the cannibal king, during a jungle expedition.
• Human Pincushion: The poem "The Sword-Swallower" describes the sword-swallower, Salomar, who has the ability to swallow swords.
• I Just Want to Be Special: In "Dog's Day", the dog longs for recognition and a sense of importance on its birthday. The dog desires attention, a song, and a meaningful gift, feeling disappointed when its birthday is seemingly disregarded.
• Imaginary Friend: In "Nobody", the narrator's best friend is named "Nobody." Nobody is portrayed as a constant presence in the narrator's life, offering companionship and support. However, the twist in the poem reveals that Nobody has disappeared without a trace, leaving the narrator feeling lonely and scared.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: The poem "Moon-Catchin' Net" presents the moon-catching net as a unique and fantastical tool used by a girl to capture the moon.
• Innocently Insensitive: In "Batty", the baby bat's fear of the light prompts a seemingly contradictory request to "Turn on the dark." The bat's plea reflects a childlike innocence and lack of understanding about the nature of light and darkness.
• Instrument of Murder: The poem "My Guitar" subverts the trope of an instrument of murder as the narrator expresses a desire for a guitar that can play itself. Instead of the guitar being a weapon or tool of harm, it becomes a source of independent musical enjoyment.
• Ironic Hell: In "Almost Perfect", Mary Hume, after complaining about imperfections on Earth, ends up in heaven, only to find that it too is "almost perfect...but not quite."
• Jekyll & Hyde: In "Skin Stealer", the Coo-Coo, wearing the narrator's skin, behaves in a disgraceful and outrageous manner, contrasting with the original person's usual behavior.
• Kids Hate Vegetables: In "Union for Children's Rights", one of the protesters is holding a sign that says "No Brussel Sprouts".
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Ladies First", Pamela Purse's habit of pushing others aside and always demanding "ladies first" ultimately leads to a situation where she and her friends are in danger of being cooked by Fry-'Em-Up Dan.
• Laughing Mad: In "Ticklish Tom", Tom's uncontrollable laughter becomes increasingly manic and unhinged as people continue to tickle him as he rolls by.
• Literal Genie: In "Who Ordered the Broiled Face?", a waiter serves a broiled face to the customer, exactly as ordered, but the face starts talking back when the customer demands it to be fried.
• Literal-Minded:
  • The girl in the poem "Shaking" believes milkshakes are made by shaking cows.
  • In "The Sitter", Mrs. McTwitter doesn't know much about baby-sitting, as she takes the "sitting" part of the job extremely literally.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: In the illustration for "Anteater" a pair of ladies shoes is shown next to the eponymous creature.
  "A genuine anteater,"
  The pet man told my dad.
  Turned out, it was an aunt eater,
  And now my uncle's mad!
• Love Ruins the Realm: In "The Toad and the Kangaroo", the toad and the kangaroo's disagreement over their child's name leads to the breakdown of their potential marriage and the loss of the opportunity to have a remarkable jumping offspring.
• Manipulative Bastard: In "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony", Abigail employs manipulation tactics by threatening to die if she doesn't get the pony. Her parents ignore her threat...until it comes true!
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: In "The Toad and the Kangaroo", the toad and the kangaroo don't get married and have a child as they planned, just because they can't agree on what their potential child's name should be.
• Mistaken Identity: In the poem "Come Skating", a child misinterprets the invitation to go skating as roller skating instead of ice skating.
• Mood Whiplash: The poem "Strange Wind" hints at this trope as it juxtaposes the strange and whirlwind-like wind with the unexpected loss of the speaker's head.
• Morton's Fork: In "Pie Problem", the narrator is so bloated that eating one more piece of pie will kill him, but if he will also die if he doesn't have it. Since he's going to die anyway, he decides he might as well enjoy the pie rather than go without.
• Multiple Endings: The poem "Hippo's Hope" concerns a hippopotamus who attempts to fly off a mountain and has three different endings: Happy (the hippo succeeds and soars off into the clouds); Unhappy (the hippo fails and plummets down the mountain, breaking all his bones); and Chicken (the hippo turns around and goes home to have cookies and tea).
• Multiple Head Case: In the poem "Mr. Smeds and Mr. Spats", Mr. Smeds has 21 heads and only one hat. He sells his hat to Mr. Spats, who has 21 hats and only one head.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • The poem "What Did?" takes simple objects, like carrots, wheat, paper, pens, teapots, and chalk, and imbues them with humor and personality, making their interactions seem more significant or amusing than they would be in reality.
  • The poem "Rock 'n' Roll Band" contrasts the ordinary setting of kids on the beach playing with homemade instruments with the grandiose image of a rock 'n' roll band with millions of fans.
  • The poem "Something Missing" takes an ordinary act of getting dressed and turns it into a comical situation by highlighting the absence of pants.
  • "Bear in There" humorously depicts a polar bear living in a refrigerator. The ordinary act of storing food in the fridge is exaggerated and given an amusingly exaggerated significance by presenting it as the habitat of a large, wild animal.
  • The poem "Monsters I've Met" juxtaposes the ordinary requests of the monsters with their supernatural nature. The narrator's encounters with these creatures highlight the humorous contrast between their monstrous appearances and their trivial desires.
  • The poem "Tired" humorously portrays the protagonist becoming exhausted from seemingly simple and ordinary tasks.
• No Ending: This trope was the whole point of his poem "Suspense," where a Damsel in Distress is Chained to a Railway by one villain, while The Hero is being held prisoner by another. And then a fifth character shows up, and it's unclear whether he's a hero or villain...
  A CRASH! And a CRY!
  And I'm sorry but I
  Have forgotten the rest of the story.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The dragon in the poem "The Dragon of Grindly Grun" breathes fire, swiftly defeats knights, and captures fair maidens, but he isn't inherently malicious, as he falls in love with the damsels that he captures. However, he does enjoy eating them, but ends up disappointed when they come out "well done" after being toasted.
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: Parodied in "Prayer of the Selfish Child", where the child asks God to break all of his toys in the event of his death.
  Now I lay me down to sleep,
  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
  And if I die before I wake,
  I pray the Lord my toys to break.
  So none of the other kids can use 'em...
  Amen.
• Oh, Crap!: The illustration that accompanies "Fancy Dive" shows Melissa the diver midair, looking down bug-eyed and slack-jawed at what is apparently an empty pool after attempting the most elaborate, complicated dive in the history of the world.
  She did thirty-four jackknives, backflipped and spun,
  Quadruple gainered, and reached for the sun,
  And then somersaulted nine times and a quarter—
  And looked down and saw that the pool had no water.
• Parental Abandonment: In "Clarence", Clarence decides to sell his old parents at a garage sale and replace them with new ones.
• Perfectionist: In "Almost Perfect", Mary Hume, throughout her life, consistently finds flaws in situations, people, and even in heaven.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The poem "The Homework Machine" is about a machine that does homework, but it is run by a small child who does some basic math problems wrong.
• Prayer of Malice: "Prayer of the Selfish Child" has the titular child praying:
  And if I die before I wake,
  I pray the Lord my toys to break.
  So none of the other kids can use 'em...
• Rubber Man: The man in "Twistable, Turnable Man" has the ability to twist, turn, stretch, and contort his body in various ways, emphasizing his flexibility and adaptability. His wife and children have it, too.
• Sad Clown: The poem "Cloony The Clown" is about a circus clown whose act gets every possible reaction from audiences except laughter. Fed up, he stands center-ring during his performance and gives a monologue about how miserable it is to be an unfunny clown. However, the crowd (and eventually the whole world) laughs uproariously at his misfortune, prompting Cloony to cry.
• Scare 'Em Straight: "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" ends with Abigail dead since she didn't get the beautiful pony. A note at the end suggests children should read it to their parents if they refuse to buy something for them.
• Somebody Named "Nobody": The poem "Nobody" is about someone with a friend named "Nobody".
  Nobody loves me, nobody cares,
  Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
  Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
  Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes. ...
  So, if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,
  I'll stand up and tell you NOBODY is!
• Spoiled Brat: The poem "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" features the trope of a spoiled brat as Abigail throws a tantrum and makes dramatic threats when her parents refuse to buy her the pony.
• Sticky Fingers: In "Squishy Touch", the girl's touch transforms everything into raspberry Jell-O, leaving a sticky and messy aftermath.
• Stripped to the Bone: A rare self-induced example in "It's Hot." It's an unpleasantly warm day, so the character removes his shoes to cool off. He's still hot, so he takes off all his clothes. When this doesn't help either, he takes off his skin and sits around in his bones. Then he despairingly exclaims, "It's still hot!"
• Tempting Fate: In "Pie Problem", the narrator decides to eat another piece of pie despite knowing it could lead to his demise. By intentionally indulging in the pie, he defies the potential consequences, tempting fate for the sake of enjoyment.
• Unreliable Narrator: In the poem "Wild Strawberries?", the narrator raises questions and concerns about the behavior of wild strawberries, leaving the reader to wonder if the narrator's warnings are exaggerated or reliable.
• The Unwitting Comedian: In the poem Cloony the Clown, a clown tries really hard to make people laugh, but to no avail. However, when he finally gets fed up and tells his audience how depressed he is, they finally start laughing, and their laughter at his misery is so contagious that the rest of the world starts laughing, too.
  While Cloony stood in the circus tent
  With his head drooped low and his shoulders bent.
  And he said, "THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT —
  I'M FUNNY JUST BY ACCIDENT."
  And while the world laughed outside,
  Cloony the Clown sat down and cried.
• Villains Out Shopping: The narrator in "Monsters I've Met" seems a bit disappointed that the monsters he meets never seem to want to kill him, but only to ask him for small favors.
• Who's on First?: The poem "The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt" has a character confusing "Meehoo" for "me who?" and "Exactlywatt" for "exactly what". Silverstein directly acknowledges the Trope Namer as the main inspiration.

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So come and walk awhile with me and share
The twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known
But this bridge will only take you halfway there—
The last few steps you'll have to take alone.

— "This Bridge"