The Ball Poem Summary

The Ball Poem
BY JOHN BERR YMA N

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
And gradually light returns to the street,
A whistle blows, the ball is out of sight.
Soon part of me will explore the deep and dark
Floor of the harbour . . I am everywhere,
I suffer and move, my mind and my heart move
With all that move me, under the water
Or whistling, I am not a little boy.
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.
The Ball Poem, SEE THE VIDEO
The Ball Poem and explanation
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!
Merrily: cheerful
Bouncing: jumping up and down
The poet is talking about a boy who has lost his ball. He wants to know about
him and his reaction because he has lost his ball. Further, he asks to himself
that what this boy will do after losing his ball. The poet has seen the ball going
away from the boy. He says that the ball was cheerfully jumping up and down
in the street. This means that when the ball skipped from boy’s hand it went
into the street and later on, it fell into the nearby river.
Literary devices:
Anaphora: use of repeated words in two or more lines (What is the boy…
what, what and merrily bouncing… merrily over)
Assonance: repeated use of vowel ‘o’ (boy, now, who, lost)
Imagery: when poet says merrily bouncing down the street
repetition: ‘what’ is repeated
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
Grief: sorrow
Rigid: fixed
Trembling: shaking
Harbour: dock, port
Intrude: invader
Dime: 10 cents (U.S)
Worthless: valueless, useless
The poet says that there is no benefit of consoling the boy by saying that he
will get another ball because he has other balls too. He says so because the
boy is feeling very sad. He is completely surrounded by sorrow. He is sad
because all the memories of the childhood days went down the harbour with
the ball. Here the poet says that the boy is very sad as the ball which has now
gone into the water reminds him of those sweet memories, of the times when
he owned it. This loss is unbearable for him and he is grief stricken. The poet
says that he can’t even tell the boy to take some money from him in order to
buy another ball. He says so because the new ball will not bring the sense of
belonging to the boy. Further, the poet says that the time has come for the boy
to learn the responsibility of taking care of his things.
Literary devices:
Repetition: use of word ‘ball’
Asyndeton: no use of conjunction in a sentence (A dime, another ball, is
worthless)
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.
Possessions: ownership
External: Here, things with which feelings are not attached
Desperate: hopeless
Epistemology: The Greek word episteme means ‘knowledge’
Here the poet says that the boy has to learn that in this materialistic world,
many of his belongings will be lost. He personifies the ball as his belongings,
be it the worldly things or the relationships he is in possession of. So, he says
that he has to learn to live without them no matter what. He says no one can
buy back such things for him. The poet said so because according to him
money can’t buy you everything. If it does buy you some materialistic thing,
still, it will not be able to buy the sense of belongingness. He says that the boy
is learning how to stand up against the sense of lost things. This means that
the boy is trying to learn the real truth of life which states that you have to
accept the miseries of life and stand up again. This is the truth which everyone
has to learn in his or her life. The harsh truth of standing up against the odd
miseries of life that everyone has to bear.
Literary devices:
Alliteration: use of sound ‘b’ at the start of two consecutive words (buys a ball
back)
Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘e’ (He is learning, well behind his desperate
eyes)
Repetition: ‘ball’ word is repeated
Rhyme scheme: There is no rhyme scheme followed in the poem.
The Ball Poem Questions and Answers

Q1-Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer
him money to buy another ball?
A1- The poet does not want to intrude so that the boy can get a chance to
learn the real truth of life. He has to learn to accept the loss. The loss here
means the most important thing or relationship.
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?
A2- 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?

A3-In the world of possessions means that the world is full of materialistic
things. Materialistic things are those things which bring comfort and luxury in
our life.
Q4- Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that
suggest the answer?
A4- 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? Try
to explain this in your own words?
A5- The poet means that the boy will learn the real truth of life. He will learn
how to move on in life despite of 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.

The Ball Poem Summary

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Ball Poem Summary

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Ball Poem

BY JOHN BERR YMA N

The Ball Poem Summary

What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,

No use to say ‘O there are other balls’:

He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,

The Ball Poem Questions and Answers

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

You might also like