Where the Sidewalk Ends

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” both directly and indirectly juxtaposes adulthood and childhood as two contrasting stages of life and two different ways of seeing the world. The first stanza uses innocent, childlike imagery that exists beyond the world we know, such as a “moon-bird” and a “peppermint wind” (Lines 5, 6). These lines express a land of make-believe that only children can travel to because they are still able to fully inhabit their imaginations in a way adults are not.

In the second stanza, the poem takes a darker turn as it reflects the world that adults inhabit every day: “this place where the smoke blows black / and the dark street winds and bends” (Lines 7-8). This image brings to mind smokestack-laden cities filled with industrialism, and twisting highways on commuter routes. This world appears in stark contrast with the softness, light, and color of the place where the sidewalk ends. More than its physical space, however, this world portrayed in the second stanza symbolizes the journey that grownups take; their path is one of constant forward movement, but often dark and filled with unexpected twists and turns that don’t exist within the safer space of childhood wonder.

At the end of the second stanza and flowing into the third and final stanza, the speaker of the poem addresses the idea of walking slow, and, in a sense, of slow living.