2. Before we proceed:
◦Everyone posses something and lose it.
◦Why then we become so upset over losing
something?
◦Isn’t it possible to buy another thing and be happy
after losing something?
3. Some points:
◦A boy losses a ball. He is very upset. A ball doesn’t cost
much, nor it is difficult to buy another ball.
◦Why then is the boy is so upset?
◦Let’s read the poem to see what the poet thinks has been
lost, and what the boy has to learn from the experience of
losing something.
4. About the author
◦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.
5. Introduction to the lesson
◦ 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 favourite 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.
7. Para 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!
◦ Explanation- 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
8. Para 2
◦ 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
◦ Explanation- 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)
9. Para 3
◦ 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
◦ Explanation- 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.
◦ -
10. Critical Analysis of The Ball Poem:
◦ This poem can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically. If taken literally, it is a
soulful picture of little boys growing up and learning to deal with the loss of the first
thing he has ever held dear. If taken metaphorically, it is the story of mankind learning
to deal with the loss of their loved ones. The ball is a metaphor for everything that we
think is irreplaceable in our lives. It is obvious that anything that is irreplaceable is very
valuable to us, and it is our responsibility to take care of those things. People taking
away one’s ball or one’s ball getting lost is a metaphor for death. What is most
precious to us is a person whom we love dearly. Hence, we always try to take care of
them. But sooner or later, every man must die, for man is a mortal creature. There is
nothing we can do to stop this process, and hence it is something we must learn to
deal with. Loss of a loved one can spell a period of intense grief and depression for
some of us. However, just like the little boy is brought back to his senses by the sound
of the whistle, we must overcome our grief and keep living. The poet’s message is that
life goes on despite the death of our loved ones.
11. Poetic Devices in The Ball Poem:
◦ Rhyme scheme:
The poet does not follow any identifiable rhyme scheme in this poem.
Rhetorical devices:
Metaphor:
This rhetorical device is used when a covert comparison is made between two different
things or ideas. In this poem, the poet uses the device of metaphor in the 8th line when he
compares the boy’s young days or his childhood with the lost ball.
Apostrophe:
This rhetorical device is used when a poet addresses his or her poem to an absent
audience. In this poem, the poet uses the device of an apostrophe in the 13th line as he
directly speaks to the little boy and tells him that balls are always liable to get lost, but we
never see the boy responding to him.
Transferred epithet:
This rhetorical device is used when an emotion is attributed to a non-living thing after
being displaced from a person, most often the poet himself or herself. In this poem, the
poet uses the device of transferred epithet in the 15th line when he writes the phrase
“desperate eyes”. It is not that the eyes of the boy are sad, but that the boy itself is sad
and that his eyes are expressing that emotion on his face.
12. Central Idea of The Ball Poem:
◦The poet watches a young boy playing with his ball.
The next minute, his ball rolls away from him and fall
into the water of the harbour. As the boy watches his
ball disappear, he can also feel his childhood slip
away from him. He feels himself growing up very fast
as he learns that loss is a part of everyday life and
that life goes on despite it. The sight of the sad little
boy pains the poet, but he knows that growing up is
an unavoidable process.
13. Themes of The Ball Poem:
◦ Loss of innocence: For the little boy in this poem, his ball is the first thing he has ever held dear. However, he has never
even considered the possibility that he might one day lose his ball. It is only when that happens that he realizes that it was
his responsibility to keep the ball safe and that he has failed. The boy quickly realizes that everything he will ever own will
be his responsibility. He also realizes that things will get lost from time to time and money simply cannot replace them all.
As he is learning these lessons, he is growing up. He will never again be as innocent he was before the loss of his ball. He
will never be naive enough to not feel the pressure of his responsibilities. This is a very painful thing for the poet to watch.
◦ Loss of a loved one: This poem has a surface meaning as well as a deeper meaning. If we read between the lines, we will
see that the ball symbolizes our family or friends whom we love, and the loss of the ball symbolizes their death. As we grow
older, we will become more and more accustomed to seeing our loved ones die. We will learn how to deal with such a loss
and to move on from it as well. Death may grieve us or cause us to feel depressed, but sooner or later we must overcome
those feelings and start living our normal lives again.
◦ When you lose something , you should let go and move on.
◦ We can’t change the past , we can only change the future.
◦ Valuable memories can’t be replaced
14. The Tone of The Ball Poem:
◦The tone of this poem is very somber and sad. The way
in which the poet describes the boy’s feelings upon losing
the ball makes us feel great sympathy for the boy. Even
more than that, we can all relate to the experience that
the boy is going through. That is perhaps why the poem
does not overly depress us. The resignation that the boy
feels can also be felt by us since death is not something
that any man can escape.
15. Exposition
◦ Setting: In a dock or harbour.
◦ Speaker: The author himself- John Berryman
◦ Dramatic action:
-A boy becomes a man
-Go to the dock
-Looking at the reflection of himself (in the water)
-Reflecting his youth
