THE BALL POEM
JOHN BERRYMAN
Thinking
about the Poem
In pairs, attempt the following questions
1) Why does the poet say, “I would not
intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?
Ans: The poet says, “I would not intrude on him” because he would not like
to intervene in the natural process of learning. He needs the boy to learn
proficiency with the importance of loss on his own. He doesn’t offer him money
to purchase another ball since that would be useless. He needs the boy to learn
proficiency with the lesson of liability.
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?
Ans: Yes, the boy has
had the ball for a long time. At the point when ball bounced into the water,
every one of his memories of the times of childhood streaked before him. This
prompted an acknowledgment that those minutes would not return, like the ball.
He can purchase new balls and can also make new moments, yet those that are
gone would not return.
3) What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
Ans: “In the world of possessions” means that the world is
loaded with materialistic things. Here everything and each activity is made to
have something, regardless of whether it is the ownership of land, property,
cash, or some other thing. The poet proposes that losing a ball, which is
something small, would cause the boy to get what it resembles to lose something
that one had.
4) Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the
Words that suggest the answer.
Ans: No, it seems that the boy had not lost anything earlier.
The words that suggest so are ‘He senses first responsibility in a world of
possessions’.
5) What does the poet say the boy is learning
from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in your own words.
Ans: The poet says that the boy is learning out
how to adapt up to the loss of the ball. He is encountering sadness and
figuring out how to experience childhood in this universe of assets. He
discovers that there are such countless things in life that are lost and can't
be brought back. He is detecting his first obligation as he has lost the ball.
The boy will figure out how to stand up and abandon the misfortunes as he would
have perceived the true meaning and nature of misfortune.
