About the Poet

 John Berryman was an American poet who rose to prominence in the

second half of the twentieth century. He was a scholar as well. His most
popular work is The Dream Songs.

Poem in Detail
Stanza – 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!
Interpretation
• The poet is observing a boy play with a ball.
• The ball bounces away from the boy.
• It rolls down the street and drops onto the water.
• The poet is looking at the puzzled expression of the boy after losing his
ball.
Character's Mood
 Sad; hopeless; anxious.
Stanza – 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.
Interpretation
• The poet understands that buying another ball would not make the boy
happy.
• The boy starts shaking in his grief.
• His body has gone rigid and he trembles.
• He stares down at the ball in grief as it is his first instance of loss.
Example 1. Extract Based:
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I would not intrude on him;
A dime, another ball, is worthless. Now
He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.

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(A) ‘I would not intrude on him;’. Who will not intrude on ‘him’?
(Understand)
(B) Why ‘another ball’ will be worthless?
(a) It wont be as huge as the one lost.
(b) It wont be as good as the one lost.
(c) It wont lessen the boy’s grief.
(d) It wont be available. (Understand)
Ans.(A) T  he poet decided to not intrude on the boy after looking at his
moment of grief at his loss.
(B)(c) it wont lessen the boy’s grief
Explanation: The poet didn’t get ‘another ball’ for the boy as the boy
was sad for the ball that he had lost. No ball could change the misery
of the boy over his lost ball. Hence, (c) is the right answer.

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Dictionary
Word Meaning Synonyms Antonyms
Merrily in a cheerful way gleefully, sullenly, sadly
mirthfully
Ultimate final end, conclusive primary, immediate,
initial
Rigid unable to be changed firm, stiff flexible, soft

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The Ball Poem 3

 OBJECTIVE Type Questions
[ 1 mark ]
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The experience of the boy of losing a possession was:
(a) first hand (b) second hand
(c) last (d) innumerable
Ans.(a) first hand
Explanation: The boy for the first time ever had lost anything dear to
him. Hence, (a) is the right answer.

EXTRACT Based Questions

[ 5 marks ]
2. Read the given below and answer the questions that follow:
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. (The Ball Poem)
(A)The poet says money is external. What does it mean in this extract?
(B)The boy is learning how to stand up. This means that he is learning
to be ............ in the face of difficulties.
(a) patient (b) resilient
(c) defensive (d) judgemental
(C)Has the poet used the phrase 'how to stand up' in a literal or
metaphorical manner? Analyse and write your answer in around
40 words.
(D)According to the poet, we mostly learn about loss from ............... .
[Mod. CBSE Term-1 SQP 2021]
Ans.(A) Money can only buy materialistic things and can be earned again,
when lost.
(B) (b) resilient.
[CBSE Marking Scheme Term-1 SQP 2021]
Explanation: The term ‘resilient’ means to withstand or recover quickly
from a difficulty. Hence, (b) is the right answer.
(C) T
 he poet has used the action of standing up in a metaphorical sense.
'Standing up' after a loss means coming to terms with that loss and

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 moving on. He says that once the boy has learnt to do that, he will
have understood the 'epistemology of loss'.
(D) Experiences
Explanation: The poet says that the boy is learning, well behind his
desperate eyes. This shows that one learns from his experience.

SHORT ANSWER Type Questions (SA)

[ 3 marks ]
Answer the following questions in 40-50 words:
3. Explain how, “Out of sight, out of mind” might apply to the boy
towards the end of the poem.
Ans. T
 owards the end of the poem, the boy saw his ball going ‘out of his sight’.
With that, he recalled the time that he spent with the ball in his past
childhood days. However, the ball is no more with the boy and slowly, it
will get ‘out of his mind’ too.
4. “Money is external”. What does the poet mean by this expression?
[Delhi Gov. QB 2022]
Ans. T
 he poet believes that money cannot buy everything. It can bring just
external happiness by buying us possessions but it cannot make us
recover from unhappiness due to the loss of a loved one or valued thing.

LONG ANSWER Type Questions (LA)

[ 6 marks ]
Answer the following questions in 100-120 words:
5. “Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of
mind’.
If you had to use the message of the given quote from the Buddha’s
sermon (The Sermon at Benares) to help the boy cope with the loss of
his ball and what it signifies (The Ball Poem), what would you include
in your advice?
Also, evaluate why it might be difficult for him to understand the
notion.
[CBSE SQP 2022]
Ans. The learning from the referenced quote of Buddha—
• the loss of irreplaceable things brings grief and sorrows.
• learning to stay calm and understanding the perishable/mortal nature

The Ball Poem 5

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 of things helps in living life normally and forgetting loss
 To help the boy cope with the loss—that loss is an important part of life
– important to learn from experience –adapt and move on.
Difficult for the boy to understand the notion—
The boy is too young to understand the depth of these words—is alone
in his loss—has no one to explain and must learn from his experience
painstakingly—requires time to cope—easy to feel disheartened at that
age.
[CBSE Marking Scheme SQP 2022]
Explanation: The message from ‘The Sermon at Benaras’ that I would
include in my advice to the boy who lost his ball in ‘The Ball Poem’ would
be that whining or lamenting over the loss of an irreplaceable thing will
only bring gloom and despair into the life of an already grieving person.
Acceptance of the loss is the only thing that can diminish the feeling of
sorrow from heart and bring contentment.
However, for the boy who lost his prized possession as a ball, it would
be so difficult to understand these lessons because of his young age.
The boy is quite young and immature. He can’t understand these mature
meanings of life. He is a child who lost his lovely ball and no other ball
can bring his memories attached to the lost ball back.

6 English Language & Literature Class X