Information on Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Allan Silverstein, more commonly known as Shel Silverstein, was born on September 25, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. He started writing at the age of 12 although he would have rather been playing ball. But, he lacked athletic ability, and therefore, became a writer. He started off writing and drawing cartoons for the Sunday newspaper when he was over in Vietnam. That triggered his interest in becoming a comical writer, as well as writing poetry and drawing cartoons …

…or even the prejudice against colored or gay people, everyone is worth the same, everyone looks the same, and everyone is the same size when we turn off the light. Silverstein is trying to say that to solve the problem of prejudice and degrading the less fortunate people for the way they look, if we were to just literally "shut off the light," then people would love each other for their souls, not their appearances.