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The Ball Poem
by John Berryman
Introduction to Chapter
We could not understand how to put up with these losses. They are lost forever. And are not retrievable.
You might have lost something you liked very much. You might have observed that when we lose something it is shock for us but by the time passes, we realize that this is part of life. That loss is common. So, its futile to grieve on losing something. Rather we start thinking ahead. This is epistemology of loss.
Title:
This poem ‘The Ball Poem’ deals with same phenomenon of losing things and reconciling with that trauma. Title is appropriate that ball is metaphor used for not just ball but worldly things. Title evokes deeper meaning that how to face a sudden loss and how to reconcile. This is message that poet conveys with a simple story of a ball.
Symbolism: Ball signifies possessions a person may have. It is also symbol of childhood innocence of the boy. Through that boy poet wants to say what is lost? What that boy has to learn from the experience of losing something. He was playing with his ball. The ball skipped from his hand and went into the nearby water body. The ball has rolled away into the water. Boy is miserable, he is shaken, helpless.
Theme:
That loss is inevitable part of life. Things will come to us, we will lose them, it should not be an emotional setback to anyone, not end of life, rather one should learn how to put up with a loss without losing heart and hope. Let yourself go ahead courageously leaving the loss behind. Is there Anything you cannot afford to lose it? Think.
As we have to learn this lesson at early stage, hence boy is picked here by poet not any mature person is taken here. The boyhood was used here to start the journey towards maturity. If boy is not consoled here, he himself gets training in learning to put up with a loss. Incident is small, but with a significant lesson that we should prepare ourselves to face harsh realities of life. How to bear loss, how to get reconciled to the fact of losing the possessions one is fondly attached. To prepare child for this, poet was there but does not convince him that he can get another ball. As money is external. It cannot buy everything; it can replace that thing but cannot bring it back.
A boy loses a ball. He is very upset. A ball doesn’t cost much, nor is it difficult to buy another ball. Why then is the boy so upset? Read the poem to see what the poet thinks has been lost, and what the boy has to learn from the experience of losing something.
Model Poem Recitation
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over — there it is in the water!
No use to say ‘O there are other balls’:
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.
Now He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take
Balls,
balls will be lost
always, little
boy.
And no one buys a ball back.
Money is external.
He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,
The epistemology of loss, how to stand up
Knowing what every man must one day know
And most know many days, how to stand up.
Explanation
Stanza 1:
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over — there it is in the water!
In these lines, situation of the poem is introduced the poet asks his readers a question. He is first time experiencing a loss. The poet who was there at that time when the ball rolled away from the boy into the water. He has seen a young boy’s ball rolling away from him, bouncing happily on its way, and finally falling into the water. boy is unable to understand how to retrieve, is sad and gloomy. The narrator has witnessed the ball going rolling away into water. He asks his readers what the boy should do now that his ball is gone. Contrast is there in stanza as ball bounced merrily leaving the boy gloomy.
Stanza 2:
No use to say ‘O there are other balls’:
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.
In these lines, the poet thinks for a moment that he ought to console the boy who has lost his ball by telling him that there will be other balls just like that one that he will come across sooner or later. However, he understands that such false consolation will not make the boy feel any better. A feeling of grief has come over the boy. He stands very straight for some time and then starts shivering all over. He watches the ball go into the harbour and down in the water, and he feels that his childhood has also taken the same route away from him. At such a time, the poet feels that it would be wrong to go up to the boy and intrude on his solitude. He does not try to soothe him here. He wants the child to learn to accept this harsh reality of loss his own. He does not even offer him money to buy another. Giving him a dime to purchase another ball will not hold any value for him.
Stanza 3:
Now He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take
Balls,
balls will be lost
always, little
boy.
And no one buys a ball back.
Money is external.
In these lines, the poet tells us that the little boy is undergoing a transformation. He is just now coming to the realisation that the ball was his responsibility, as many things will be after this. In this world, everything you own is your responsibility and you must keep those things safe. However, nothing you own will be yours forever. Other people will take away your ball, or it will get lost in some way or the other. No one will buy another ball for you. Money is only something you can show off, but ultimately it cannot buy you inner peace. Money cannot buy everything. Here the ‘ball’ is a symbol for all of one’s possessions, and the poet is saying that we will certainly lose them one day and that they cannot be easily replaced.
Stanza 4:
He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,
The epistemology of loss, how to stand up
Knowing what every man must one day know
And most know many days, how to stand up.
In these lines, the poet reveals how small incidents in life contain significant lessons of life. The poet says that the boy’s eyes have become filled with an awful sadness, but that behind all the grief, he is learning an important lesson. He is learning about the loss of things one considers precious. How to cope up with it. He is learning a lesson that every man must learn, and one that man must learn again and again. He is learning how to accept the loss and then move on. And to bring life to a halt and advance further to achieve again and perhaps to lose those things again.
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LITERARY DEVICES:
Repetition:
Stanza 1
What, what is he to do? I saw it goIn line 2, poet questions readers what is he to do now. To emphasise he uses ‘what’ twice.
Stanza 3
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.Repetition is use of a word, phrase or clause a number of times to give unity and rhythm to the poem.
Anaphora:
Stanza 1
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over — there it is in the water!
In line 1 and starting is with same words ‘what’ and in line 3 and 4 which starts with ‘merrily’ is example of Anaphora when we repeat the same beginning to emphasise a repeated element to bring rhythm in the poem.
Transferred Epithet:
Stanza 2
An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boyIn Transferred Epithet we use an adjective not with the noun it qualifies but with some other noun. Here in this line, it is not the grief that is shaken but the boy. Shaking is used here with grief not with boy.
Alliteration:
Stanza 3
Balls,
balls will be lost
always, little
boy.
And no one buys a ball back.
Money is external.
Stanza 4
Knowing what every man must one day know
Alliteration is used here as we can observe occurrence of same word sound at closely connected words
i.e.,
balls, balls, be and in buys, ball, back. Through this poet has given musical effect to the poem and has
enhances pleasure of reading.
Personification:
Stanza 1
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and thenIn personification, human attributes are associated with an object, nature or something. Here ball is bouncing merrily as if we can see children bouncing merrily while going to school or while playing. Here personification is used beautifully.
Word Meanings
| S.No | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | shaking grief: | sadness which greatly affects the boy |
| 2. | rigid: | stiff |
| 3. | (to) intrude on: | here, to enter a situation where one is not welcome |
| 4. | a dime: | ten cents (U.S.) |
| 5. | desperate: | hopeless |
| 6. | epistemology of loss: | understanding the nature of loss — what it means to lose something |
| 7. | epistemology: | The Greek word episteme means ‘knowledge’ (it comes from a word meaning ‘to understand, to know’). Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge itself. |
Comprehension of Stanzas
Stanza 3
…Now He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.
And no one buys a ball back. Money is external.
i) Write the name the poem and poet.
A: Name of the poem is The Ball Poem and the poet is John Berryman.
ii) What does the boy understand?
A: The boy learns how to cope up in a loss. It was his first time, his first responsibility.
iii) What does the word ‘balls’ signify?
A: ‘Balls’ signify the boys’ innocence and happy young days.
iv) What is meant by the word ‘possessions?’
A: ‘Possessions’ means material things that we possess and strive for more and more.
v) What does “In a world of possessions mean?”
A: It means that everybody loves to possess things or materials in their names.
Stanza 4
He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,
The epistemology of loss, how to stand up
Knowing what every man must one day know
And most know any days, how to stand up.
i) Name the poem and its poet.
A: Name of the poem is The Ball Poem and the poet is John Berryman.
ii) What is the boy learning?
A: The boy is learning to bear loss, how to stand up.
iii) Why are boy’s eyes desperate?
A: Boy’s eyes look desperate as he is gloomy to see his ball rolled away from him forever.
iv) What do you mean by ‘epistemology of loss?’
A: ‘Epistemology of loss’ means to understand the nature of loss. To get knowledge of loss.
v) What every man needs to know one day?
A: Every man needs to know one day that losses will be there always. This is fact of life. He would have
to bear it up.
Exercises
Thinking About The Poem:
Q:1. Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer
him money to buy another ball?
A: The boy has lost his ball. He is grief-stricken. The poet does not want to intrude here. He thinks it
to be proper to let the child understand the harsh reality of life and put up with the situation his
own. So that he can prepare himself for future life on how to bear losses. Poet wants that child should
develop a sense of responsibility and maturity.
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?
A: Yes, the boy had that ball with him since long. He had memories connected to that ball which is lost
now. He is sad due to this reason. The ball was so dear to him that he feels gloomy over its loss.
Q:3. What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
A: Possessions here means materialistic things; we are possessive about to such an extent that we don’t
want to share these with anyone. We are attached with them emotionally. We have a lust to collect
materialistic things too much. This world is full of this possessiveness.
Q:4. Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that
suggest the answer.
A: As line 11 of the poem “Now he senses his first responsibility” says, we can say that he is in grief
over the loss. He feels trembling and shaken over the first-time loss of his belonging which has
rendered him shocked for the first time. So, it was first time and the boy had not lost anything in the
past.
Q:5. What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to
explain this in your
own words.
A: Loss of the ball is giving him lessons of how to take care of belongings. The boy is learning the
nature of loss how one feels about after losing his dear things. He is learning how to face loses and
how to cope up with. This small incident is imparting training to him which is significant in life. He
is learning that without losing heart he should stand up and go ahead in life.
Q:6. “Money is external”. What does the poet mean by this expression?
A: The poet makes the boy understand about his responsibility at the loss of material. Money is external
as it cannot buy memories, just it can replace the things that we loved, those things are that really
matter.
Q:7. What does John Berryman want to convey through this poem?
A: Poet John Berryman wants to convey the importance of loss and responsibility in life. We all should
learn our responsibility and how to cope up with the loss.
Q8: What is the theme of the poem.
A: Loss is a fact of life. Childhood is the time when one should be imparted training on how to bear
loss right from the very first time. With the loss of belongings, we learn to live without them
gradually. One should not feel sad and gloomy. The poet says that we can buy another by paying money for
it. But he does not want to soothe the boy here. He wants that boy must learn the bitter truth of life,
harsh reality of life that anyone can suffer loss of things, dear to him. One should not bring life to a
halt and continue to achieve more to lose again perhaps.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Who wrote the poem ‘The Ball Poem?’
i) Robert Frost
ii) Leslie Norris
iii) John Berryman
iv) walt Whitman
Answer: iii) John Berryman
2. The word ‘balls’ in the poem signify -
i) small things in life
ii) things that we possess in life
iii) sweet thoughts in our mind
iv) toys possessed by children
Answer: ii) things that we possess in life
3. Name the literary device used in "And no one buys
a ball back."
i) Metaphor
ii) Simile
iii) Anaphora
iv) Alliteration
Answer: iv) Alliteration
4. Why does the poet decide not to console the boy?
i) He is busy
ii) He is indifferent
iii) It will be of no use
iv) He is happy
Answer: iii) It will be of no use
5. What does the poet say about money?
i) internal
ii) external
iii) useless
iv) all of the above
Answer: ii) external
6. How are the boy’s eyes?
i) brilliant
ii) dull
iii) desperate
iv) all of the above
Answer: iii) desperate
7. Name the literary device used in "Merrily bouncing,
down the street, and then Merrily over — there it is in
the water!"
i) Simile
ii) Alliteration
iii) Anaphora and personificatoin
iv) Metaphor
Answer: iii) Anaphora and personificatoin
8. How does the child react at the loss?
i) stands rigid
ii) trembles
iii) stares
iv) all of them
Answer: iv) all of them
9. What does a ball cost?
i) dimes
ii) 1 dime
iii) 4 dimes
iv) 10 dimes
Answer: ii) 1 dime
10. Where does the ball go?
i) well
ii) house
iii) water
iv) drain
Answer: iii) water
11. Who loses the ball?
i) The poet
ii) The boy
iii) Both A and B
iv) None of the above
Answer: ii) The boy
Check your progress:
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