The Ball Poem By John Berryman-Summary-Explanation
5. The Ball Poem By John Berryman This poem is about a boy whose ball bounces down into the street and finally falls down into the water in the harbour. The poet watches the whole incident. He watches the boy becoming sad and disappointed. He does not want to offer any consolation to the boy by saying that he would have his other ball, etc. He let the boy experience the pain at the loss of something dear to him. Thus the boy learns for the first time that one should not grieve too much over the loss of material things because these are only for some time with us. Central Idea: We should not feel sad at the loss of our worldly possessions. Things come to us to go. Sometimes our dearest and most precious possessions are also lost. It does not mean we should keep on weeping at the loss forever. Life must go on without looking behind at the things that pain us. Lines 1 – 4: What is the boy now, who has lost his ball. What, what is he to do? I saw it go ...