Gujarat Board Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Poem 5 The Ball Poem

Gujarat Board Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Poem 5 The Ball Poem

Gujarat Board Textbook Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Poem 5 The Ball Poem

The Ball Poem Introduction:
John Berryman (October 25, 1914- 1972) was an important American poet in the second half of the 1900s. He was seen as one of the chief poets of confessional poetry.

Berryman wrote about shame, like mental illness and lust. He said that he was not writing about himself but about made-up people.

The Ball Poem Summary:
‘The Ball Poem’ is a very subtle and beautiful poem about a little boy’s growing up. The poet sees this little boy one day when he has just lost his ball. The loss of his ball is teaching him that in life, we often Jose things and they cannot be easily replaced. Such lessons are a part of growing up, and everyone has to learn them at some point of time or the other. However, it is painful for the poet to watch the boy in his sad state. He is sure that the ball, as well as the person who whistles by the boy, feels the same way as he does.

GSEB Class 10 English The Ball Poem Additional Important Questions and Answers

Read the following stanzas carefully and answer the questions given below them:

Question 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!
No use to say-‘O there are other balls’:

Questions :
(1) What has happened to the boy ?
(2) Why does the poet say, “No use to say-‘O there are other balls’?”
(3) Which word means ‘happily’ ?
Answer:
(1) The boy has been greatly upset as he has lost his ball.
(2) The poet says so as the loss of the ball is of a major consequence to the boy.
(3 ) Merrily means happily.

Question 2.
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. I would not intrude on him,
A dime, another ball, is worthless.

Questions:
(1) Explain ‘An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy’.
(2) How has the loss affected the boy ?
(3) What, according to the poet, is ‘worthless’ ?
Answer:
(1) ‘The boy is terribly grieved and it has upset him a lot’.
(2) The boy is very much troubled at the loss of his ball. He stands still, trembling and staring at his ball.
(3) To offer the boy ‘a dime’ to buy another ball for his lost ball in his disturbed state of mind is ‘worthless’, according to the poet.

Question 3.
…………….. Now
He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions. People will take
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.
And no one buys a ball back. Money is external.

Questions:
(1) What does the poet mean by ‘first responsibility’ ?
(2) What does the word ‘balls’ suggest ?
(3) What universal truth is revealed in this stanza ?
Answer:
(1) By ‘first responsibility’, the poet means that the boy is supposed to look after his things properly at first.
(2) ‘Balls’ suggest ‘physical possessions of the world’.
(3) The poet reveals the truth metaphorically that ‘balls’, i.e., ‘worldly possessions never stay with permanently. They are (always) supposed to be lost.

Question 4.
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 s stand up. (March 20)

Questions:
(1) What is the boy learning ?
(2) Why are the boy’s eyes desperate ?
(3) What do you mean by ‘epistemology { of loss’?
Answer:
(1) The boy is learning to cope up with the loss.
(2) The boy’s eyes look desperate (hopeless) ?as he is sad to see his ball gone forever.
(3) ‘Epistemology of loss’ means to understand the nature of loss.

Choose the correct figures of speech used in the following lines:

Question 1.
‘What, what is he to do?’
A. Repetition
B. Alliteration
C. Interrogation
D. All of these three
Answer:
D. All of these three

Question 2.
No use to say ‘O there are other balls’.
A. Metaphor
B. Synecdoche
C. Litotes
D. Internal Rhyme
Answer:
C. Litotes

Question 3.
‘As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down’.
A. Internal Rhyme
B. Simile
C. Alliteration
D. Metonymy
Answer:
A. Internal Rhyme

Question 4.
‘I …………….. would not intrude on him’.
A. Personification
B. Metaphor
C. Apostrophe
D. Litotes
Answer:
D. Litotes

Question 5.
‘………….. balls will be lost always, little boy’.
A. Anastrophe
B. Apostrophe
C. Repetition
D. Synecdoche
Answer:
B. Apostrophe

Question 6.
‘……………… well behind his desperate eyes’.
A. Transferred Epithet
B. Metonymy
C. Synecdoche
D. Metaphor
Answer:
A. Transferred Epithet

Question 7.
‘Knowing what every man must one day know’.
A. Alliteration
B. Repetition
C. Anastrophe
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’

Question 8.
‘And most know many days, how to stand up’.
A. Internal Rhyme
B. Simile
C. Alliteration
D. Metonymy
Answer:
C. Alliteration

Answer the following questions in three to four sentences each:

Question 1.
What message does John Berryman want to convey through this poem?
Answer:
The message that the poet wants to convey is the importance of loss and responsibility in life. We should not forget the importance of possessions.

Question 2.
Why did the boy feel so sad at the loss of his ball ?
Answer:
When the boy lost the ball, he plunged in grief. He stood staring down the harbour where his ball was lost. The boy was affected profoundly by the loss of his ball because it had been with him for a long time. It was linked to the memories of the days when he played with it.

Question 3.
‘Money is external’. What does the poet mean by this expression?
Answer:
He makes the boy understand about his responsibility as the loss is immaterial. He can purchase another belli. He explained that the world is full of possessions and money is an external item.

Question 4.
Why did the poet not offer the boy money to buy another ball?
Answer:
The poet watched the boy who was plunged in grief at the loss of his ball. He did not offer the boy money to buy another ball. He felt that another ball could not console the boy. It seemed the boy had had the ball for a long time. The poet also wanted to make the boy realize the Epistemology of loss.

Question 5.
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 his desperate eyes.

Question 6.
Write the sum and substance of the poem ‘The Ball Poem’.
Answer:
In ‘The Ball Poem’, John Berryman tells us about 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 7.
Why does the poet think that it is useless to give the following suggestion to the boy? No use to say-‘O there are other balls’:
Answer:
According to the poet, it is useless to console the boy by saying that he can get another ball in place of the lost one. The boy had a long association with the ball. It was, thus, useless to give him such a suggestion because he wanted to get back the belli that he had lost.

Answer the following question in five to six sentences each:

Question 1.
Give the central idea of the poem ‘The Ball Poem’.
Answer:
The poet watches a young boy playing with his ball. The next minute, his ball rolls away from him and falls into the water of the harbour. As the boy watches his ball disappear, he can also feel his childhood slip away from him. He feels himself growing up very fast as he learns that loss is a part of everyday life and that life goes on despite it. The sight of the sad little boy pains the poet, but he knows that growing up is an unavoidable process.

GSEB Class 10 English The Ball Poem Text Book Questions and Answers

Thinking about the Poem
Question 1.
Why does the poet say, ‘I would not intrude on him’ ? Why doesn’t he offer him \ money to buy another ball ?
Answer:
The poet wants the boy to experience the loss. He should learn that it is a part of life. That’s why the poet doesn’t want to interact with the boy and doesn’t want to offer, him money to buy another ball.

Question 2.
‘…………… staring down / All his young days into the harbour where /His ball went …………’ Do you think the boy has had the ball for a ? long time ? Is it linked to the memories of days when he played with it ?
Answer:
Yes, the boy has had the ball for a ] long time i.e., since his childhood. Yes, it is linked with the memories of days when he played with it.

Question 3.
What does “in the world of possessions” mean ? (August 20)
Answer:
‘In the world of possessions’ means people like to possess all sorts of things in the world. Money is external because it can buy only material objects; it cannot buy everything that one loses.

Question 4.
Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier ? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.
Answer:
No, the boy hasn’t lost anything earlier. The words ‘He senses first responsibility’ suggest the answer.

Question 5.
What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball ? Try to explain this in your own words.
Answer:
The poet says that the boy is learning to cope up with the loss of the ball. He is experiencing grief and learning to grow up in this world of possessions. He learns that-there are so many things in life that are to be lost and cannot be brought back. It is useless to feel sorrow for it.

Question 6.
Have you ever lost something you liked very much ? Write a paragraph describing how you felt then, and saying whether – and how – you got over your loss.
Answer:
Student should write the answer of this question in his/her own words.

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