
My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes — I guess he didn’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ’cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And then I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head —
Too proud of me to speak!
‘Smart’ By Shel Silverstein


I love this Shel Silverstein poem. I used it as an introduction to poetry for classes that groaned when I said the word poetry. In other words, every single class.
I hated poetry until I got the right teacher. She didn’t hammer us with Goethe or Schiller, but rather with poems we could relate too. Makes all the difference in the world.
Made me smile.
I love everything Shel Silverstein writes.Awesome writer.
I used to use this poem when I was a substitute teacher. It’s great for the lower grades. 🙂
hahaha…. I really enjoyed reading this. It’s 2 in the night here and after a long day I am in my bed laughing because of your post, thank you.
You’re welcome
oh dear … and he was the smartest son? 😳
That’s the scary part. 🙂
Brilliant… 🙂 Happy smiles to you Bridget.. 🙂
Glad you liked it, Sue
Love this!
Superb. I’m a big fan of naive. I think if we reclaimed naive we might be a little more content 🙂
I like that philosophy! 🙂
We could use naive, and unicorns and mermaids. 🙂