The Ball Poem

THE BALL POEM
SUMMARY
The poet is talking about a little boy who has lost his ball. He was playing
with his ball. The ball skipped from his hand and went into the nearby water
body. The poet says that this sight of the boy losing his favorite ball made
him think about the boy and his reaction to this situation. He further says that
the boy was helplessly looking into the water where his ball had gone. He
was sad and was trembling with fear. He got so immersed in his sorrow that
he kept standing near the harbour for a very long time and kept on looking
for his ball. The poet says that he could console him that he may get new
balls or he could also give him some money to buy another ball. But he stops
himself from doing so because he thinks that the money may bring a new
ball but will not bring the memories and feelings attached to the lost ball. He
further says that the time has come for the boy to learn his responsibilities.
Here the poet wants to say that now the boy will learn the toughest lesson of
life. The lesson of accepting the harsh realities of life that one day we will
lose our loved ones and our loved things.
Question Answers
Q1. Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he
offer him money to buy another ball?
Answer: The poet does not want to intrude so that the boy can get a
chance to learn the real truth of life. He felt that another ball could not
console the boy. He has to learn to accept the loss. The loss here means
the most important thing or relationship. The poet also wanted the boy to
realize the epistemology of loss.
Q2. “… staring down/All his young days into the harbour where/His ball
went …” Do you think the boy has had the ball for a long time? Is it linked
to the memories of days when he played with it?
Answer: Yes we can say that the boy had the ball for a very long time.
The line itself describes how the boy recalls those days when he used to
play with the ball. The ball was surely linked to some sweet memories of
his playing with the ball.
Q3. What does “in the world of possessions” mean?

Answer: In the world of possessions, means that the world is full of
materialistic things. Materialistic things are those things that bring comfort
and luxury to our life.
Q4. Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that
suggest the answer?
Answer: The line in the poem “now he senses his first responsibility’ helps
us to know that the boy has not lost anything before.
Q5. What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball?
Answer: The poet means that the boy will learn the real truth of life. He
will learn how to move on in life despite incurring heavy losses. Everyone
experiences this in his/ her life when they lose either something or
someone. This harsh reality that lost things never come back make people
strong enough to live their life by accepting this truth of life.
6. What does John Berryman want to convey through this poem?
Answer: Poet, John Berryman wants to convey the importance of loss and
responsibility in life. We all should learn our responsibility and how to cope
with the loss.
Q7. How does the boy feel at the loss of his ball?
Answer: The boy is very much troubled at the loss of his ball. He
experiences grief at the loss of his much-beloved possession. Like a
statue, he keeps staring at the ball with his desperate eyes.
Q8. Write the sum and substance of the poem “The Ball Poem”.
Answer: In “The Ball Poem”, Berryman tells us about how our childhood
can quickly fly by, as quickly as a ball is lost, and how we sometimes
unsuspectingly must grow up and face hardships, like a loss.
Q9. “Money is external”. What does the poet mean by this expression?
Answer: The poet makes the boy understand his responsibility as the loss
is immaterial. Money is external as it cannot buy memories, nor can it
replace the things that we love, the things that really matter.
Q10. Why does the poet think that it is useless to give the following
suggestion to the boy?
‘No use to say- ‘O there are other balls’:
Answer: According to the poet, it is useless to console the boy by saying
that he can get another ball in place of the lost one. The boy had a long
association with the ball. It was, thus, useless to give him such a
suggestion because he wanted to get back the ball that he had lost.
Q11. Why did the boy feel so sad at the loss of his ball?
Answer: When the boy lost the ball, he plunged into grief. He stood staring
down the harbour where his ball was lost. The boy was affected profoundly
by the loss of his ball because it had been with him for a long time. It was
linked to the memories of the days when he played with it.
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THE BALL POEM

Q3. What does “in the world of possessions” mean?

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