THE BALL
POEM
ABOUT THE POET
John Berryman was an American poet and
scholar. He is best known for the Dream Songs
(1969) which was a sequence of 385 poems. He
won Pulitzer Prize for the dream songs. He also
won National book award.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LESSON
The poet John Berryman through his poem, ‘The
ball poem’ has described the reality of life which
everyone has to face one day. He has touched
the topic of how to stand up against the miseries
and sorrows of life.
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.
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)
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 message of the poem The Ball Poem is that we
get things in our life which become a part of our
lives. We feel that they will always remain with us.
Thus we form an attachment with them. However a
day comes when the thing is no more with us.
At such a situation, we feel depressed and hopeless.
According to the poet, losing our possessions is a
harsh reality of our life on earth. We cannot get
away from it. Hence we have to face such a
situation and then try to move on.
