THE BALL POEM
John Berryman
Highlights
• The poet describes the grief of a boy over the loss of his ball.
• He sees it bounce away from him and land in the harbour
• He looks into the gloomy water and experiences immense grief at the loss of his most
loved possession
• To us it’s a minor issue but to the boy it was a valued possession which cannot be
replaced
• The ball bouncing into the waters brings back his childhood memories and the
realisation that those moments cannot be retrieved
• The poet here suggests that the boy is learning how to stand up in a world of
possessions which can be lost anytime and can never be retrieved back
Message
• Those which we possess and whom we love will not be with us forever
• One has to learn to cope with losses
• Despite the losses that happen in one’s life, one has to stand up, be strong and get on
with one’s life – no matter how much it hurts inside
• That’s the only way to survive
• Learn to accept and let go, and not to cling onto something that you cannot keep
forever.
Poetic devices
• Repetition: ‘what, what’, ‘balls, balls’
• Alliteration: ‘buys a ball back’
• Transferred epithet: ‘desperate eyes’
Questions for Practice
A. RTC Questions (Answer in 1-2 sentences)
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!
a) What has happened to the boy?
b) Why is the word ‘what’ repeated?
c) Which word means ‘happily’?
d) Who is the ‘I’ mentioned here?
2. He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,
This epistemology of loss, how to stand up
Knowing what every man must one day know
And most know many days, how to stand up.
a) What is the boy learning?
b) What is the poetic device used in the first line? Explain.
c) Explain ‘epistemology of loss’.
d) What does every man need to know one day?
B. SA Type Questions (30-40 words)
1. How does the boy feel at the loss of ball?
2. What does in the world of possessions’ mean? Why is money ‘external’?
3. what does John Berryman convey through this peom?
C. LA Type Questions (120-150 words)
1. Why is it important for everyone to experience loss and to stand up after it?
2. Money, though it is very important in our life, it cannot replace everything. Explain.
