Where the Sidewalk Ends

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1974

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Sun and Moon

The first stanza of the poem mentions both the sun and the moon, putting them indirectly into a shared space at the same time. In this mythic place within the poem, “the sun burns crimson bright” (Line 4), which may denote the scarlet light of a sunrise or sunset. Both of these times are liminal spaces, or transitional thresholds, in between worlds—not quite day and not quite night. Immediately following, the poem introduces the image of “the moon-bird [who] rests from his flight” (Line 5). It’s not specified what the nature of the bird’s association with the moon is; it may be a bird who has traveled from the moon; it may be that the bird resembles the moon in some way, such as the color of its feathers; or it may be a species that appears only at night, leading to a folkloric association with the moon. The bird may also be a metaphor for the celestial moon itself. In this imaginary world beyond the sidewalk, any possibility can be as true as any other.

By placing the sun and moon in juxtaposition immediately against each other, the poem heightens the sense of a place that is between one world and another. Additionally, the image of the moon-bird resting conveys a brief moment in time between one active state and another. If the bird is meant to be a symbol of the moon, then this period of rest represents a point when the moon is held in stasis—new, full, or at the apex of its journey across the sky. This is another way in which the place where the sidewalk ends is a physical and temporal space that is eternally in between.

Arrows

“[C]halk-white arrows” are mentioned in both the second and third stanzas: “and watch where the chalk-white arrows go” (Line 11) and “we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go” (Line 14). In both instances, the arrows are meant to indicate the direction one must follow to reach this mystical place where the sidewalk ends. Rather than stating that the arrows are drawn in white chalk, the poem expresses that the arrows are as white as chalk. This alludes to the earlier image of white grass in the first stanza: “And there the grass grows soft and white” (Line 3).

Chalk (and particularly sidewalk chalk) is by nature an ephemeral medium; it is easily smudged or washed away by rain. By comparing the signpost arrows to chalk, the poem conveys that the arrows are temporary and unstable. There may be a connection here between the fleeting nature of these arrows and the nature of childhood, with children being the only ones capable of perceiving and creating these arrows to begin with: “For the children, they mark, and the children, they know” (Line 15). This image portrays the place where the sidewalk ends as something that is obtainable only for a very short window of time. Moreover, it can only be discovered by people who are themselves caught within that short window of time, or those (like the speaker) who can rediscover it within themselves.

The Sidewalk

Although the poem revolves around a place beyond the sidewalk, the sidewalk itself pervades each moment of the poem’s journey. The speaker and their companions do not reach this titular place within the poem’s lines; instead, they state their intention to travel along the sidewalk from one state of being to another.

Initially, the sidewalk and the street are juxtaposed against one another: “There is a place where the sidewalk ends / and before the street begins” (Lines 1-2). This appears to be an impossible place, because a sidewalk and a street are usually right up against each other. The street is expanded on in the second stanza, in which it is “dark” and “winds and bends” (Line 8). There is a sense that the sidewalk with its chalk arrows is running parallel to this dark street symbolic of urban life.

Another interpretation is that the sidewalk is meant to symbolize childhood, while the street is meant to symbolize adulthood. Thus, the “place where the sidewalk ends” occurs just at the cusp of childhood and adulthood. The winding and bending of the street then represents the twists and turns of adult life, whereas the sidewalk is fairly stable and consistent. This leisurely path of childhood years is how the speaker is able to travel “with a walk that is measured and slow” (Line 13) before reaching the place at the boundary between one phase of life and the next.