Short Questions and Answers
Question 1 : What does john Berryman want to convey through this poem?
Answer : Poet, John Berryman wants to convey the importance of loss and responsibility in life. We all should lean out responsibility and how to cope up with the loss. The poet also wants us learn that things will get lost from time to time and money simply cannot replace them all.
Question 2 : How does the boy feel at the loss of his ball?
Answer : The boy is very much troubled at the loss of his ball. He experiences grief at the loss of his much loved possession. Like a statue, he keeps staring at the ball with this desperate eyes. He finds it difficult to cope up with the loss.
Question 3 : Write the sum and substance of the poem “The Ball Poem”.
Answer : In “The Ball Poem”, Berryman tells us how our childhood can quickly fly by, as quickly as a ball is lost and how we sometimes unsuspectingly must grow up and face hardships, like loss.
Question 4 : “Money is external”. What does the poet mean by this expression?
Answer : The poet makes the boy understand about his responsibility as the loss is immaterial. Not every loss can be replaced by money. Money is external as it cannot buy memories, nor can it replace the things that we love, the things that really matter.
Long Questions and Answers
Question 1 : Why is it important for everyone to experience loss and to stand up after it?
Answer : It is important for everyone to experience loss and to stand up after it in order to be strong and to get on with life. One needs to stay strong no matter how much it hurts inside. Staying strong is the only way to survive. Moreover, one needs to learn to accept and let go and not cling to something that they can never have. One should understand that the past is gone and it will never come back. Experiencing loss sometimes helps us to grow up and face hardships, like loss. This helps us in breaking all the boundaries into freedom. The poem teaches us a philosophy of life through the loss of ball. i.e. “Loss is a universal truth in our life.” We have to lose something at one point of time. Through the loss of ball, the boy learns real knowledge of the world. If he is able to bear the loss, he will be able to face the difficulties of life courageously. The boy must know, how to stand up after a loss. This is very essential for every human being to be able to move on or standing up after a person has fallen or being knocked down. Here ball signifies losing something valuable that can not be bought or replaced. The poet wants us to understand that loss is inevitable and everyone must learn to cope up with the loss with patience and courage.
Question 2 : Money, though is very important in our life, but it can not replace everything. Explain.
Answer : Money is very important in everyone’s life but the poem teaches us one thing more. Money is external because it can not buy everything that one loses. The poem can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically. Literally, it is a picture of little boy growing up and learning to deal with his first loss. Metaphorically it is the story of mankind learning to deal with the loss of their loved ones. It is here where money can not bring back our loved ones, we must learn to cope up with these personal losses. However bit amount of money, we may have, we can not bring our loved ones from the clutches of death. Loss of a loved one can spell a period of intense grief and depression for some of us. Money can not provide any relief from this situation. The moral is that we should stop running madly after money.