Re: Homework, O' Homework!

[Allison G Kaplan <akaplan@UDEL.EDU>]

Group,

I'm responding to the whole list because I've got a problem with the
authorship of this poem. Glen asks for "Homework! Oh, Homework!" by Shel
Silverstein. An attribution I've seen before. The problem is that I have a
copy of that poem in a book of poems by Jack Prelutsky. I've copied it
below just be to sure we're talking about the same poem. Have these
creative men each written about the same topic?  (Not unheard of to be
sure but should we be more careful about our citations?). So what do you
all think?

Homework! Oh, Homework
From: New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky. 1984

Homework! Oh, homework!/ I hate you! You stink!/ I wish I could wash you/
away in the sink,/ if only a bomb/ would explode you to bits./ Homework!
Oh, homework!/ You're giving me fits.
I'd rather take baths/ with a man-eating shark,/ or wrestle a lion/
alone in the dark,/ eat spinach and liver,/ pet ten porcupines,/ than
tackle the homework/ my teacher assigns.
Homework! Oh, homework!/ You're last on my list,/ I simply can't see/ why
you even exist,/ if you just disappeared/ it would tickle me pink./
Homework! Oh, homework!/ I hate you! You stink!

Allison G. Kaplan
Cataloger
Education Resource Center
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716-2940
(302) 831-1584
akaplan@udel.edu


On Mon, 3 Jun 1996, Glen Walder wrote:

> Hi LM_NET'ers,
>
> I am in need of the poem, "Homework, O' Homework" by Shel Silverstein.
> If you can post it to my email or fax to 510/833-3334 I would be most
> grateful.
>
> Guess when I need it?  By Tuesday 9am PST.
>
> TIA,
>
> Glen Walder
> gwalder@wahoo.sjsu.edu
>