Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Ball Poem Important Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared The Ball Poem MCQ and The Ball Poem Textbook Questions & Answers so, you can check these posts also. I have also shared Madam Rides The Bus Questions & Answers, The Sermon At Benares Questions & Answers and The Proposal Questions & Answers so, make sure to check these posts as well.
The Ball Poem Important Questions & Answers
Question 1: What has the boy lost and how?
Answer: The boy has lost his ball while playing with it near the harbour when it bounced and rolled away into the water.
Question 2: In the beginning of the poem, what is the boy’s state of mind?
Answer: As the boy has lost his ball so, he is in a very gloomy, sad state of mind. At his first experience of a loss, he is feeling very helpless and doesn’t know what to do in his misery.
Question 3: Why is it no use to say, ‘O there are other balls’?
Answer: It is of no use to say ‘O there are other balls’ because at the loss of that particular ball, the boy is so grief-stricken that he will not respond to reasoning. For him, no other ball can be a substitute for the one that has been lost.
Question 4: Why is the boy staring down into the harbour?
Answer: The boy is staring down into the harbour because his ball has gone across the street into the water body. So, he is staring at that point with sorrow where the ball was last seen.
Question 5: Explain the expression: ‘ultimate shaking grief.’
Answer: This expression means that at the loss of the ball, the boy is so shocked that he feels that nothing can be more grievous than the loss that he has faced. The thought of this big loss makes him shake with grief.
Question 6: Explain: ‘He senses first responsibility.’
Answer: For the first time in his life, the boy realizes as to how one feels on losing one’s possession. He also learns how one has to be more cautious in keeping one’s possessions safe. The loss of his ball is a lesson for him where he realizes his responsibility.
Question 7: What makes the boy rigid? Why does he ‘tremble’?
Answer: The helplessness at having lost his ball forever makes him rigid. Because of the utter grief that has overtaken him, the boy trembles.
Question 8: What does the poet wish to convey through the expression, “People will take/Balls, balls will be lost always”?
Answer: Through this expression, the poet wishes to convey the universal nature of loss. The possessions that people keep amassing will not stay forever. Also, once they are lost, they can’t be replaced. So, one must understand the nature of loss and accept them boldly.
Question 9: Explain: “Money is external.”
Answer: The expression means that money can buy a thing to replace the lost one but cannot bring the original lost thing back.
Question 10: Why are the boy’s eyes desperate?
Answer: The boy’s eyes are desperate to have his ball back as he is having his first experience of loss and had never tasted the pain of loss earlier.
Question 11: ‘And no one buys a ball back’. Explain what the poet wants to convey to the boy?
Answer: The poet wishes to convey to the boy that whatever is once lost cannot be recovered and losses are a part of life and one has to encounter them every now and then.
Question 12: Why is it important for the boy to know ‘the epistemology of loss’?
Answer: It is important for the boy to know ‘the epistemology of loss’ because this will impart a maturity of thought to the child and prepare him to understand the universal nature of loss and accept them boldly. It will prepare the boy to put up with the loss and muster strength to move on.
Question 13: Explain the expression, “how to stand up.”
Answer: The expression implies how to tolerate a loss and muster strength to move on again.
Question 14: In the poem, what does the ball symbolize?
Answer: In the poem, the ball symbolises materialistic possessions in the world and also the young days of the boy when he is full of innocence and does not understand the nature of losses.
Question 15: Give examples of
(a) Alliteration
Answer:
Balls, balls will be lost always…
And no one buys a ball back.
(b) Personification
Answer: Merrily bouncing down the street.
(c) Repetition
Answer:
What, what is he to do?
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.
(d) Anaphora
Answer:
- 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!
(e) Enjambment
Answer:
- 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!
- 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.
So, these were The Ball Poem Important Questions & Answers.