Poem 5 The Ball Poem

Class 10 English Poem 5 The Ball Poem Questions and answers

Page No 47:

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
says “I will not intrude on him” because he wants the boy
to learn the meaning of loss on his own. He does not offer him money
to buy another ball because according to him, money or another ball
is worthless. The boy was trying to understand his first
responsibility as he had lost something, which could not be brought
back.

Page No 47:

Question 2:

“… staring
down/All his young days into the harbor 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, it
seems like the boy has had the ball for a long time. When it bounced
into the water, all his memories of the days of childhood flashed in
front of him. This led to a realisation that those moments would not
come back, just like the ball. He can buy new balls and can similarly
create new moments, but those that are gone would not return.

Page No 47:

Question 3:

What does “in the
world of possessions” mean?

Answer:

Here, “in
the world of possessions” means the world where everything and
every action is made to possess something, whether it is the
possession of land, property, money, or any other thing. The poet
suggests that losing a ball, which is a very small thing, would make
the boy understand what it is like to lose something that one
possessed. This would make the boy realise that this is a world of
possessions and where one can possess more things by buying them, one
cannot buy what has been lost.

Page No 47:

Question 4:

Do you think the boy
has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the
answer.

Answer:

No, it
seems that the boy had not lost anything earlier. The words that
suggest so are ‘senses first responsibility in a world of
possessions’.

Page No 47:

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 suggests that from the loss of the ball, the boy is learning how
to stand up in a world of possessions where he will lose things, will
buy some more to replace the ones lost, but would never be able to
buy back the thing that he had lost. He is sensing his first
responsibility as he has lost the ball. The
poet says that money is something external and what he really wants
the boy to understand is the meaning of loss. The boy is learning
what it means to lose something. The poet says that knowing that
every man has to stand up after such losses, the boy too will learn
how to stand up and leave the losses behind as he would have
understood the true meaning and nature of loss.

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