“How much will you pay for an extra day?”
The clock man asked the child.
“Not one penny,” the answer came,
“For my days are as many as smiles.”
“How much will you pay for an extra day?”
He asked when the child was grown.
“Maybe a dollar or maybe less,
For I’ve plenty of days of my own.”
“How much would you pay for an extra day?”
He asked when the time came to die.
“All the pearls in all of the seas,
And all of the stars in the sky.”
By: Shel Silverstein
Ok, to be honest, the blog assignment was to post your favorite poem, and I didn’t really remember this poem as I was flipping through my Silverstein book. I liked others better. But when I got to this one, I really liked it. Silverstein shows us how important time becomes when we are older. When he first asked the boy, when he was little, the boy said, “Not one penny.” The child didn’t yet understand; he probably thought he would live forever and had all the time in the world. Later, when the Clock Man asks the boy, probably as an older teen or younger adult, the man says, “Maybe a dollar or maybe less.” Time is becoming more important to the boy, though he still thinks he has plenty of time to do everything. However, when asked as an old man about to die, the boy’s answer becomes, “All of the pearls in all of the seas, and all of the stars in the sky.” On his deathbed, the man finally realizes how much he would give to have another day. More time. On his deathbed, the man realizes, I think, that he didn’t use his time to do everything available to him.
It took this man to his deathbed to learn his mistake, wasting time thinking he had all of it, but this poem reminds everyone to use the time you have now. Though it seems you might have plenty of time, use your time to do something good, so when you’re on your deathbed and the Clock Man asks you, “How much will you pay for an extra day?” you can say, “Not one penny, for I did everything I needed and wanted to do.”
Photo Credit: Toni Verdú Carbó via Compfight
