25 minutes to go

They're buildin' the gallows outside my cell.

I got 25 minutes to go.

And in 25 minutes I'll be in Hell.

I got 24 minutes to go.

Well, they give me some beans for my last meal.

23 minutes to go.

And you know... nobody asked me how I feel.

I got 22 minutes to go.

So, I wrote to the Gov'nor... the whole damned bunch.

Ahhh... 21 minutes to go.

And I call up the Mayor, and he's out to lunch.

I got 20 more minutes to go.

Well, the Sheriff says, 'Boy, I wanna watch you die'.

19 minutes to go.

I laugh in his face... and I spit in his eye.

I got 18 minutes to go.

Well...I call out to the Warden to hear my plea.

17 minute to go.

He says, 'Call me back in a week or three.

You've got 16 minutes to go.'

Well, my lawyer says he's sorry he missed my case.

Mmmm....15 minutes to go.

Yeah, well if you're so sorry, come up and take my place.

I got 14 minutes to go.

Well, now here comes the padre to save my soul

With 13 minutes to go.
And he's talkin' about burnin', but I'm so damned cold.
I got 12 more minutes to go.

Now they're testin' the trap. It chills my spine.

I got 11 minutes to go.

'Cuz the goddamned thing it works just fine.

I got 10 more minutes to go.

I'm waitin' for the pardon... gonna set me free

With 9 more minutes to go.

But this ain't the movies, so to hell with me.

I got 8 more minutes to go.

And now I'm climbin up the ladder with a scaffold peg

With 7 more minutes to go.

I've betta' watch my step or else I'll break my leg.

I got 6 more minutes to go.

Yeah... with my feet on the trap and my head in the noose...

5 more minutes to go.

Well, c'mon somethin' and cut me loose.

I got 4 more minutes to go.

I can see the mountains. I see the sky.

3 more minutes to go.

And it's too damned pretty for a man to die.

i got 2 more minutes to go

I can hear the buzzards... hear the crows.

1 more minute to go.

And now I'm swingin' and here I gooooooooo....

Shel Silverstein
Poem analysis
In 25 minutes to go, the writer uses various literary devices and
words to bring across his message more clearly as well as add
heavier emphasis on the idea of his poem.

The writer uses anaphora in the poem in a way that he repeatedly

includes the number of minutes left in his poem after each sentence.
The number of minutes left is written after each continuous
sentence. This creates a very rushed effect on the person reading it
as the person will be consistently reminded of the number of
minutes the poet has left. Apart from creating a very rushed effect,
it also causes the reader to want to continue to read on and not want
to stop because of the curiosity and urgent desire to find out what
happens after the last minute. The poet intentionally uses anaphora
in the poem as repetition is able to secure emphasis and also further
increase the intensity of the message of the poem. In this case, the
amount of minutes left is greatly emphasized because of the use of
anaphora. This appeals to the readers emotions, pathos, as the
reader will feel more anxious and curious to find out what happens at
the end, thus wanting to read on.

Also, in the poem, words and phrases with negative connotations are
used to express the poets anger and unhappiness in the poem. For
example, the word damned' carries a very angry and violent vibe
which suggests that the poet is angry to the point where he's very
close to using violence. The phrase 'spit in his eye' also suggests
that the poet's anger has led to him beyond his internal feelings and
has caused him to use physical expressions to show and display his
anger. 'Cuz the goddamned thing it works just fine' tells the reader
that the poet was hoping for the trap to be faulty and not work.
This suggests that the poet still harboured the thought of not
getting executed immediately.

Shel Silverstein was a poet and musician known for childrens

QUOTES
Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the
shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never
haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.
Shel Silverstein

Synopsis

Shel Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930, in Chicago.

Silverstein studied music and established himself as a musician and
composer, writing songs including A Boy Named Sue, popularized by
Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynns Ones on the Way. Silverstein also
wrote childrens literature, including The Giving Tree and the poetry
collection A Light in the Attic. He died in 1999.

Early Career

Born in Chicago, Illinois on September 25, 1930, Shel Silverstein

enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1950 and served in Korea and Japan,
becoming a cartoonist for Stars & Stripes magazine. After his stint
in the Army was up, he soon began drawing cartoons for magazines
such as Look and Sports Illustrated, but it was his work
for Playboy magazine that began garnering Silverstein national
recognition. Silverstein's cartoons appeared in every issue
of Playboy, riding the high-point of its popularity, from 1957 through
the mid-1970s.

While at Playboy in the 1950s, Silverstein also began exploring other

areas of creativity, including writing and music, and he contributed
poems to the magazine, including "The Winner" and "The Smoke-
off," and wrote the books Playboy's Teevee Jeebies and its
sequel, More Playboy's Teevee Jeebies: Do-It-Yourself Dialogue for
the Late Late Show. He also began publishing his own books of
cartoons, beginning with Take Ten (1955) and Grab Your
Socks (1956). In 1960, Silversteins collected cartons, Now Here's
My Plan: A Book of Futilities, would appear with one of his most
famous drawings adorning the cover. Around this time, he branched
out into music, recording his first album, Hairy Jazz (1959), a record
containing several standards and a couple of original songs.
Silverstein would go on to produce more than a dozen albums over
the course of his diverse career.

'The Giving Tree' and Other Writings

In 1963, Silverstein met Ursula Nordstrom, a book editor, and she

convinced him to begin writing material for children, which he did on
short notice. Uncle Shelby's Story of Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot
Back would be the first, appearing that same year. The next year, he
wrote two: A Giraffe and a Half and The Giving Tree, the latter of
which would go on to become Silverstein's most popular book.

Besides being wildly popular, The Giving Tree is one of the most
discussed childrens books of all time. Featuring a boy and a tree,
the plot centers on both characters growing up and the boy having
less and less time for the tree but more and more need for what the
tree can give him. Eventually the tree allows itself to be chopped
down to make lumber for a boat so the boy can go sailing. Years
later, the boy returns as an old man, and the tree says, "I'm sorry,
boy... but I have nothing left to give you." The boy says, "I do not
need much now, just a quiet place to sit and rest." The tree then
says, "Well, an old tree stump is a good place for sitting and resting.
Come, boy, sit down and rest." The boy sits, making the tree once
again happy to serve him.

The book is both sad and ambiguous in intent, and for these reasons
it was initially rejected by publishers, who thought the books
themes resided somewhere between those meant for adults and
those for children. The book portrays either a bleak or realistic
assessment of the human condition (or both) and a stark viewpoint
of parent/child relationships, but Silverstein meant to give children
a look at life unadorned (others have read religious and anti-feminist
themes into the work as well). Regardless of the message, The
Giving Tree has been translated into more than 30 languages and is
continually named to lists of the best childrens books of all time.

Musical Works
As the 1960s came to an end and the 1970s began, Silverstein
ramped up his songwriting efforts, composing the songs "A Boy
Named Sue" (which would be popularized by Johnny Cash), "One's on
the Way," "So Good to So Bad," "Sylvia's Mother" (sung by Dr. Hook,
1972) and "Yes, Mr. Rogers, among others. His full-length albums,
all from the early 1970s, included Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball (a
satiric look back at the 1960s hippie counterculture, and his biggest
hit), Drain My Brain, A Boy Named Sue and Other Country
Songs (which was released after Johnny Cash had turned the title
track into a huge hit) and Legends and Lies (The Songs of Shel
Silverstein). He also wrote motion picture soundtracks for 1970s
films such as Ned Kelly, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He
Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, Thieves and years down
the road, Postcards from the Edge (1990).

Later Years

While Silverstein was celebrated in certain musical circles for his

music, it was always his work as an author of children's books that
set him apart, and he produced two of his most memorable in the
1970s: Where the Sidewalk Ends (his first collection of poetry;
1974) and The Missing Piece (1976). When the 1970s came to an end,
Silverstein would continue releasing memorable childrens titles,
among them A Light in the Attic (1981), a collection of poems and
drawings, which went on to win several awards, and The Missing
Piece Meets the Big O (1981), a sequel to The Missing Piece.

Silversteins output was minimal in the 1980s, but he returned in the

1990s with Falling Up (1996) and Draw a Skinny Elephant (1998),
adding a few more to his oeuvre posthumously.

Shel Silverstein passed away on May 10, 1999, from a heart attack in
Key West, Florida.