The Ball Poem

John Berryman

Introduction:

John Berryman, the poet of the poem ‘The Ball Poem’ describes the reality of life. We have to face the reality of losing something which we love. The poet tells about coping up with losses, sorrows, and miseries of life.

About the Poet:

John Allyn McAlpin Berryman was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century. His best-known work is The Dream Songs. He won National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize.

Summary and Theme:

This poem is about losing something which we love and then learning to grow up with the loss. It tells us about a boy, who is learning to experience grief for the first time in his life. The grief is a result of the loss of a dear possession, his ball. The loss of a ball may be a minor issue. We may feel that there are many more balls. So, why should the boy worry? But to the boy, losing the ball is something different. One may get another ball with a very less amount of money. A ball costs only a cent. But, money is external and not important here. Another ball or the money cannot buy back the much-loved ball. Nothing can replace the things we love after we lose them. We have to know the grief of loss and learn to live with it.

In this poem, the boy’s ball is compared to the poet’s youth. Those days were happy and innocent. The loss of the ball is the loss of innocence and happiness that are associated with youth. We cannot get them back. We have to get over the grief. We need to be strong and get on with our life, irrespective of the loss and sadness. This is the only way we will survive. We have to accept and let go.

The poet uses the imagery while telling how the ball implies the spirit of the boy’s childish innocence. We may visualize how the spirit of this little boy, like the ball, is sinking into the waters after slipping from his hands. It drifts further away. The boy has to live and grow with the loss and the sadness that it brings.

The lesson of accepting the harsh realities of life is taught to us in this poem. One day we will lose our loved ones and our loved things. The poem gives us a picture of boys growing up and learning to deal with the loss of their first possessions. At the same time, it tells us about mankind learning to deal with the loss of its loved things or people.

Meaning:

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 the 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

O there are other balls: The words suggest that the loss is not important enough to worry about

shaking grief: sadness which greatly affects the boy

rigid: stiff, fixed

trembling: shaking

(to) intrude on: here, to enter a situation where one is not welcome

a dime: ten cents (U.S.) one-tenth part of a dollar

harbour: dock, port

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 the 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 of loss: understanding the nature of loss — what it means to lose something

epistemology: The Greek word episteme means ‘knowledge’ (it comes from a word meaning ‘to understand, to know’). Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge itself.

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 things, still, it will not be able to buy the same 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

Meaning of the poem:

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.

Rhyming Scheme:

There is no rhyming scheme.

Textual 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?

The poet does not want to intrude because he wants the boy to get a chance to learn the real truth of life. The boy has to learn to accept the loss. The loss here is symbolic. The ball represents an 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?

Yes. We can say that the boy had the ball for a very long time. The line tells us how the boy recalls those days when he used to play with the ball. The ball is associated to many sweet memories.

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

Possession means something that is owned or possessed. In the world of possessions means the world which is full of materialistic things. Materialistic things 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?

No. I do not think that the boy has lost anything earlier. The line in the poem “now he senses his first responsibility’ clearly tells us the fact.

Q5.  What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in your own words?

The poet tells us that the boy will learn the real, harsh truth of life. He will learn how to move on in life despite of incurring heavy losses. People experience this in life when they lose either something or someone. Lost things never come back is a reality that makes people strong enough to go on in life.

6. Have you ever lost something you liked very much? Write a paragraph describing how you felt then, and saying whether — and how — you got over your loss.

Yes. Once I lost something I liked very much. My pet dog, Lucky, passed away after being a member of our family for about eleven years. All our family members had an affectionate attachment with the dog. The dog was a part and parcel of our lives. We were very sad. We could not forget the dog’s memories. We were unable to bring another dog in its place. We felt sure that no other dog would bring us the same joy as Lucky did in our lives. No dog, however nice and loyal could replace its place in our hearts. Slowly, we came out of the sorrow. Now, whenever I think of the dog, a smile appears on my face in remembrance of the sweet days and memories I had with the dog.