This post ‘The Ball Poem NCERT Solutions Class 10 English’ provides NCERT solutions for Class 10th English First Flight poem The Ball Poem by John Berryman. I recommend first read the summary of The Ball Poem to understand the Thinking about the Poem Fire and Ice questions better.
The Ball Poem Thinking about the Poem
Q.1. Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?
Ans. The boy’s grief is deep and personal, and the poet feels he has no right to disturb him at such a moment. The boy must face this sorrow alone. He does not offer money because money cannot buy back the lost ball or the happy memories attached to it. A new ball would only hide the loss; the boy needs to learn what loss really means.
Q.2. Do you think the boy has had the ball for a long time? Is it linked to memories of days when he played with it?
Ans. Yes. The ball seems to have been his companion for a long time, and it carries the memories of all his childhood games. That is why, as he stares down into the harbour, he seems to be staring at “all his young days” going down with it.
Q.3. What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
Ans. It means this world in which people own things and value them. In such a world one must learn a hard truth that possessions do not last. Things get lost or are taken away, and no amount of money can bring back what is gone.
Q.4. Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.
Ans. No, this appears to be his first real loss. The words “an ultimate shaking grief” and “He senses first responsibility / In a world of possessions” suggest that he is feeling such a loss for the very first time.
Q.5. What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball?
Ans. He is learning the epistemology of loss, the real meaning of losing something. Behind his desperate eyes he is learning that in this world things will be lost, that money cannot buy them back, and that he must accept the loss and stand up again. This is a lesson every person must learn one day, and most people learn it many times over in life.
Q.6. Have you ever lost something you liked very much? Write a paragraph.
Sample ans. I once lost the fountain pen my grandfather had given me on my tenth birthday. It slipped out of my pocket somewhere on the way home from school, and although I walked the same road three times looking into every drain, I never found it. It was not an expensive pen, and my mother offered to buy me a better one, but that was not the point; my grandfather had written my name on its cap with his own hand. For a few days I felt a strange emptiness whenever I opened my bag. Slowly the sharpness of the loss faded, and I learnt to keep what remained of him more carefully: his letters, his photograph and his habit of writing a little every day.
Glossary in Textbook: shaking grief — sadness that greatly affects the boy; rigid — stiff; intrude on — enter where one is not welcome; a dime — ten cents (U.S.); desperate — hopeless; epistemology of loss — understanding the true nature of loss.
