Poem Analysis Shel Silverstein

The Loser

By Shel Silverstein

This poem begins with the well-known warning “Mama said I'd…” which draws our attention right away. It warns us of what might happen if we lose our head and along with it our eyes and ears and mouth.

The poet tells us in a funny way that once we lose our heads we risk losing everything else. And when we think we get stuck, we just need to sit and rest for a while.

The attitude of the writer is clearly an optimistic one as he does not see this unhappy incident as the end but rather as an experience that we have to take the time to meditate on.

So, there is a lesson to be learned from this quite short but dense and profound poem: try and keep your head on your shoulders unless you want to find yourself in such a terrible situation. This message make the poem be worth reading by everyone who wants to learn not from their mistakes but others’.