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The Ball Poem
1.0About the Poet
John Berryman was born as John Smith in McAlester, Oklahoma, on 25th October 1914, The collection that would seal Berryman's reputation as an essential American original was 77 Dream Songs (1964). This collection was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Berryman was elected a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets in 1966 and served as a chancellor from 1968 until his death. He died on 7 January 1972.
Central Idea
'The Ball Poem' is about a little boy's growing up. The poet sees a little boy one day when he has just lost his ball. The loss of that ball teaches him that we often lose things in life, and they cannot be easily replaced. Such lessons are a part of growing up, and everyone has to learn them at some point in time or the other. The poet is feeling sad to see the boy in a sad state. The ball was not a costly one, and he could purchase another ball. But the boy did not buy a new ball. He is in deep sorrow and grief. In the poem, the poet tries to understand what the boy has lost and the boy's experience by losing a ball.
2.0Epistemology of Loss
This poem, by John Berryman, is about losing something that you love, and learning to grow up. It is about a little boy, who, for the first time in his young life, is learning what it is like to experience grief at the loss of a much beloved possession-his ball. To us, the loss of a ball is of minor consequence, and our reaction to it is to say ' 0 there are other balls'. But to a little boy, this is not so. A dime, another ball, is worthless. Money is external; it cannot buy back our love, nor replace the things that we love: the things that really matter.
In this poem, the boy's ball personifies his young days and happy innocence. In this world, people will take balls just as they will take away our innocence and force us to grow up. And once we lose this innocence, we can never get it back. Balls will be lost always, little boy, and no one buys a ball back. This poem goes to show how, all throughout your life, you will be forced to do things that you don't want to do; and you will lose or have to give up the things that you love. But, despite this, you have to learn to stand up - to be strong and get on with your life - no matter how much it hurts inside. Because that is the only way you will survive; you have to learn to accept and let go - and not cling onto something that you can never have.
The poet uses imagery when describing how the ball personifies the spirit of the boy's childish innocence. In the last five lines, we visualize how the spirit of this little boy, like the ball, is sinking into the dark waters of the harbour. As it drifts further away, the boy learns to grow up, and that part of him that is linked to that ball, grows up as well, until it is no longer a little boy.
3.0Poetic devices used in this poem
(1) Anaphora : This poetic device refers to the repetition of a word at the start of two or more consecutive lines. Example - What ...... What, what ...... Merrily...... Merrily... (2) Assonance : This poetic device refers to a vowel sound which is repeated within phrases or sentences that are close to each other in the text. Example - Vowel 'O' (boy, now, who, lost). He is learning ......... desperate eyes (3) Imagery : The poet has given the visual description. Example - Merrily bouncing (4) Repetition : The action of repeating something that has already been said or written. Example - The word 'what' has been repeated. (5) Personification : It is a literary device that refers to the projection of human characteristics onto inanimate objects in order to create imagery. Example - The poet has used the phrase 'Merrily Bouncing' for the ball. Being happy is the characteristic of humans. (6) Alliteration : It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Example - Buys the ball back (7) Symbolism : It is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Example - In this poem the ball is a symbol of childhood which if lost, can't be brought back. It was also used as a symbol of possession. (8) Apostrophe : It is a literary device in which a person is addressed who is either dead or physically not present. Example - The poet addressed the boy who was not physically present with him. (9) Asyndeton : It refers to no use of conjunction in a sentence. Example - A dime ....... worthless.
4.0Let's Recall
- This poem is about losing something you love and learning to grow up.
- It is about a little boy who is learning what it is like to experience grief at the loss of muchbeloved possession - his ball for the first time in his young life.
- The little boy has lost his ball.
- He can buy many new balls, but he has a very deep emotional attachment and memories associated with that ball.
- So, he regrets over the loss of the ball.
- The poet is indirectly telling us that we should learn how to cope with the loss.
- And money is external, i.e., we can't buy memories with money.
- We all should learn our responsibility and also to cope up with the loss.