The Ball Poem

The Ball Poem
-JohnBerryman
About the poet
 John Allyn Mc. Alphin Berryman was an American poet
and scholar.
 He was born on 25th october 1914 in Mc Alester, Oklah in
the united states of America.
 He was married to Kate Donahue in 1961.
 He was educated at Clare College, Columbia University.
 ‘The Dream Songs’, Songs ‘77 dream songs’ and
‘Berryman’s Shakespeare’ are some of his famous
works.
 He was awarded Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1969.
 He died on 7 January 1972.
Central Idea
 The poet John Berryman describes in the poem the grief and
pain of boy who has lost his ball. He suffers a sense of
responsibility in the dispossession of the ball in this
materialistic world. The poem shows that one undergoes pain,
grief and suffering with the loss of things or possessions but
one has to have patience as life is such. So one has to accept
things and run of life as it goes. The boy who has lost the ball
shall have to learn the ‘epistemology of loss’ and bear the
grief.
Stanza one
 The boy has lost his ball. He learns for the
first time in his life what it is like to
experience the loss of his possession of the
boy. He sees it bouncing down the street and
landing in the water. This ball symbolizes his
childhood memories. The ball is the valuable
possession of the boy. This ball has been with
him over a long time. It forms an integral part
of his childhood memories. It also implies that
the boy’s innocence is being replaced slowly
by the experience of life when he shall be
losing and gaining many things. It may also
mean the start up of his gaining maturity.
Stanza Two
 There is absolutely no use to say that
there are other balls. The boy will get
other ball but this particular ball stands
lost for ever. He is emotionally shaken at
the loss of this ball which signifies his
childhood memories. He undergoes the
process of losing things in life and stands
transfixed due to it. He stands trembling
and staring down all his young days into
the harbour where his ball went. The boy
feels that his childhood innocence will
never come. This is the grief that nearly
shocks him over the loss.
Stanza Three
 The poet says that he would not give the
boy any money for a new ball as this new
ball would not substitute what the boy
has lost. A realization of responsibility
dawns for the boy when he looses the
ball. He cannot find the ball which
symbolizes his sense of possessions. He
realizes that this sense of belonging and
possessing things in life is a hard reality
and he must learn it. From this loss the
boy is learning what it is to lose one’s
possessions in a world of possessions. He
would buy things but the ‘lost things’
would never come back.
Stanza four
The poet generalizes the things that people will take
the balls, balls will be lost but these would never
come back. The boy would never be able to get his
‘lost ball’ and for that matter no one will be able to.
The ball is a personification of the boy’s innocence. It
gets into the process of vanishing and being replaced
by the real experiences of life in the form of ‘gains
and losses’. Money is external as it can’t buy the
things lost for ever. Money cannot buy back the sweet
memories of childhood that stood attached with the
ball. Buying and losing continues throughout our life.
Money can’t compensate our emotional losses.
Similarly, the childhood that we have lost forever,
can’t be bought back with money.
Stanza five
 The boy with his hopeless eyes is
beginning to learn the nature of loss. He
is learning what it means to lose
something. He has to learn how to come
over the loss and stand up again in life.
He has to learn this basic principle of life
which every man of the world has to
learn. He must learn how to bear the
pangs of the loss of his childhood. He has
to move ahead in life forgetting the loss
of his childhood.
Theme
 John Berryman in his poem
describes the grief of a boy over
the loss of his ball. The poet
sympathizes with the boy but says
that very soon he would also learn
to stand up despite all obstacles
from the experience of losing
something. The ball is symbolic in
the poem as it is associated with
the sweet memories of his
childhood. No other ball can
compensate the loss. With that
loss, he senses his first
responsibility in a materialistic
world. He learns that our loved
ones and our worldly possessions
will not be with us forever.
Title justification
 The title, ‘The Ball Poem’ makes one

wonder as to what the poem is about.
One wonders whether it is about a ball
and one anticipates it to be a happy
poem. The reader is curious to know what
the poet has to say about a simple object
like a ball. The simplicity of the title
belies the sad and deep meaning and the
mood of the poem. The title doesn’t give
a clue about its theme which is the
importance of acceptance of loss.
Message
 The message of the poem is that though

excruciatingly hurtful, we have to learn
how to accept the loss of one’s loved ones
and our worldly possessions. It is the
nature of life that things are found and
lost. We have to take loss in our stride
and be brave enough to understand and
also accept the inevitability of loss.
THANK
YOU

The Ball Poem

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

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Ball Poem

 The title, ‘The Ball Poem’ makes one

 The message of the poem is that though

You might also like