The Ball Poem

 

 

 

The Ball Poem

                                               By – John Berryman

Introduction

The Ball Poem, composed by John Berryman, is a twenty-five line poem that is contained within one stanza of text.  This poem is written in Blank Verse as it does not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. The poem describes how a young boy learns to cope with loss.  The poem initially appears simple, but it actually touches a very sensitive episode of the life where a little boy undergoes a deep traumatic phase and learns to overcome it.

 Theme

The poem explores themes of loss, growing up, and transformation. At times, the life makes us stand at such a difficult point where we find ourselves totally distress and abandoned.  But after all, it is the life only that teaches us not only how to overcome these bad times but also  how to transform ourselves to one who can easily face such challenges in future also. The boy loses his ball; the ball symbolizes his childhood, where he was living care freely as his parents and elders were around him to take every care of him. But the moment he becomes adult, he has to handle everything by himself. The ball may also symbolize someone in his life who is very close and dear to him. Losing this person makes him quite distressed and upset. Now he has to cope with this loss and the grief.

Summary

The boy loses his ball. The poet (narrator) sees his ball bouncing into the street and then finally reaching into water. The boy is emotionally so attached to the ball that any replacement of his ball will not console him. The boy is deeply aggrieved by this loss and he is just witnessing this loss (his childhood or his father) while shaking and trembling.

The poet says that he would not interfere anyways into this matter as he wants the boy should experience this loss so that he could learn to overcome it. He again reiterates that even money could not make up this loss as this loss is irrevocable.

Next, the poet mentors the boy by saying that this materialistic world, people are selfish and they will make this loss occur to anyone and they are not going to compassionate this loss. Now the poet can see that the boy understands the epistemology of loss and how to stand up and overcome these losses. He is learning the lesson of life that every man must learn one day. 

 

Poetic Devices:

Personification: In the poem, the poet describes ball merrily bouncing down the street. Merry means happy. It is a human characteristic which is given to the ball.

Metaphor: In the poem, poet says, “balls will be lost always“. Here, the ball symbolizes possessions which we lose. It also refers to the childhood which if lost never comes back.

Apostrophe: It is a literary device in which a person is addressed who is either dead or physically not present. In the poem, the poet says, “balls will be lost always, little boy“. The boy is physically not present with the poet.

Repetition: In the poem the poet repeats the word “what” two lines. “What, what is he to do?”

Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. e.g. “who has lost his ball”, “what, what is he to do?”, “no one buys a ball back”, “the deep and dark floor of harbour”, “move my mind and my heart move with all that move me”.

Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. e.g. “I saw it go merrily, down the street”

Symbolism: It is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In the poem, ball and balls represent childhood, possessions and even the father of poet.

Additional Questions

1. What does John Berryman want to convey through this poem?

2. How does the boy feel at the loss of his ball?

3. “Money is external”. What does the poet mean by this expression?

4. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow.

An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy

As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down

All his young days into the harbour where

His ball went. I would not intrude on him,

A dime, another ball, is worthless.

 

(a) Where had the boy’s ball gone?

(b) How has the loss affected the boy?

(c) Why was ‘he’ trembling, staring down?

(d) What does the poet mean by ‘first responsibility’?

Terminal Questions

1. Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?

2. “… 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?

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

4. Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.

5. What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in your own words.

Board Questions

2010

Q.  What is the central idea of the poem “The Ball Poem”?

Q. How did the poet witness the whole scene of the boy losing his ball?

2012

Extract-based question:

“What is the boy now, who has lost his ball… No use to say — ‘O there are other balls’:”

a)      Questions asked:

b)      What has happened to the boy?

c)       Why does the poet say “No use to say – ‘O there are other balls’?”

d)      Which word means ‘happily’?

e)      Where did the ball go?

2014

 “Now He senses first responsibility In a world of possessions…” (extract)

a)      What does the boy understand?

b)      What does ‘balls’ signify?

c)       What does John Berryman want to convey through this poem?

2015

 Why doesn't the poet offer the boy money to buy another ball?

2016

Q. Does the lost ball stand for the metaphor of the boy’s lost childhood? How?

Q. Why does the poet say: “No use to say ‘O there are other balls’?”

Short-answer question:

Q. Why was the boy upset on losing his ball? (30-40 words)