Please read the analysis, the comments and comment below about your interpretation of "The Ball Poem"
Saturday, August 27, 2011
# 1 Analysis of "The Ball Poem"
The following is a college blog. The teacher has written her own analysis of "The Ball Poem" by John Berryman and the students use thoughtful academic language to respond to their interpretation of the poem along with agreeing or disagreeing with other comments. Use this blog as an exemplar of how to respond to an entry.
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I feel like the theme of this poem is a bit harder to grasp. It tells the story of a young boy who has lost his ball and takes his mourning to an extreme. From this we can infer that the ball most likely symbolizes something. That thing can vary from and a valuable object to money to dreams or to even money. It never becomes visible to us but we can see that the narrator clearly is at a healthy mental state due to his reaction towards the situation. I believe that this is a very dark and depressing poem and does not seem to bring joy to lives of the readers.
ReplyDeleteMatt Stein
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This poem is a dark poem containing a lot of symbolism along with a very deep and dark meaning. The life and struggles of the author, John Berryman, are clearly shown throughout the poem. The author uses one of his past experiences and uses symbolism in order to make it simple yet underneath it is very complex. It is easy to understand and relate to the poem due to the fact that everyone has lost something in their life. The reader cannot tell what had happened to Berryman just from the poem but what can be inferred is that he had a traumatic loss in his life. The reader can see this through the boy and his ball. The boy is grieves when he loses the ball which means that Berryman must have lost something that would never be replaced. Berryman uses such a complex and dark topic and puts into a simple and easy to understand story.
I feel the poem "The Ball Poem" portrays a time laps of the speakers life. The 'ball', symbolizing the boy’s life shows how life can be taken away from you at any point in time. Agreeing with the teacher’s statement, “The poem is intensely bare...". The poem leaves a large gap for imagination with slight hits to reveal its theme. These hints can include random objects such as a whistle; but this random object, like many others, becomes a huge significance to the poem. The use of the whistle, in my opinion, is showing how fast life passes you by; with the blink of an eye it is gone. With the extreme depression shown through words of the author, the theme 'life is precious' is strongly suggested to the reader.
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Brandon Rodriguez
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This poem by John Berryman is about a young boy who loses his ball. Usually losing a ball would not be and issue, but their is an underlying grievance that causes the boy to be so upset over his ball. The reason that this poem is so good is that John Berryman was a very dark person. he wrote this poem with such subtlety and finesse that it is very easy to relate to.Anyone who has ever lost someone or something dear to their heart knows the boy's pain. The reader will never know why John Berryman was so angry or depressed but his wisdom will be shared with everyone who reads his poem. The poem may be grim but it's message is a good one and it is in fact a very easy poem to understand, it does not rhyme but most people should understand it and enjoy it.
Amber Jimenez
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I Think "The Ball Poem" is a story in a story. I think the theme about the little boy and his ball can mean exactly what the author is saying but can also mean another thing at the same time. I think the other story is about an older boy who has let his childhood (symbolized as the ball) slip away and he wants it back. As he chases it, he begins to lose hope in himself and begins to blame his self and become depressed and hopeless. Throughout the poem he seems to recover from his loss of childhood he learns a lesson (the theme). The lesson he was taught was to never take life for granted or learn from your mistakes. Meaning, instead of now letting your adulthood slip away make the best out of it and don't make the same mistake you did to your childhood. The author states "A whistle blows" meaning, your time is up and it is time to move one and carry on with your life. The poem reads "I am not a little boy" tells me that he came to the realization that he is not going to get his childhood bak no matter how hard he tries. Like they say "Time waits for no one."
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ReplyDeleteDaniel Maldonado
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I surprisingly enjoyed reading “The Ball Poem”, in class due to the fact that it could have been interpreted in various ways any no ones perspective can be wrong. Poetry tends to tire me but the author made his audience truly feel the pain or sadness that the engulfed the boy. In class we came to the conclusion that the “Ball”, was a symbol for the author’s dreams and life. However, I personally thought that the ball was a lost love that John Berryman had. This was what I thought because his sadness seemed to resemble love sickness or depression after an event similar to the death of a wife. This was also hinted at me when the author said, “No use to say ‘O there are other balls.” I interpreted this, as a similar phrase to there will be other fish in the sea. Therefore he was denying the feeling of happiness and love by rejecting women. However, John Berryman’s dreams and personal depression can be inferred as symbols of the balls. I agree with the teacher when she mentioned the poems simplistic design making it more engaging because the mystery that surrounds the poem seems to entertain the reader. Nevertheless, this poem was a dark and deep representation of the author’s problems and depression.
"The Ball Poem" written by John Berryman, to me is an insightful message in which the author incorporates a bare, and generic connection to his childhood. The tone of the author appears very sad and depressed, most likely as a result of the author's true feelings. The message or theme of this poem is that life is precious and if you don't cherish it, you will miss it because it flies by so fast. Many symbols were used to portray some of the author's feelings and/or experiences. For example, the lost ball represents his childhood and how he lost it, which put him in a state of depression. Subsequently, there is a change in tone in which the author then says, "And most know many days, how to stand up and gradually the light returns to the street." In other words, standing up represents recovering from a loss and the light represents the newly achieved happiness that results. In the end, although the poem is depressing and grim, the readers receive an insightful and positive message from a man who knows about the subject.
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Gabby Camacho
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This poem, “The Ball Poem” is in my opinion, about a boy who has had his childhood taken away due to a traumatic experience. Symbolized by the ball in the poem, John Berryman focuses on the fact that he can’t get his “ball” back, and for years obsesses over it, trying to retrieve it once more. But over time, he realizes the mistake he’s made; life had been passing him by, but he was too depressed to live life to the fullest. Luckily, he still had time, and although the sadness will always be inside him over whatever experience ruined his childhood, John Berryman grows up, and goes back to the real world. The theme in this poem was that life is precious so don’t waste yours. He knows that he’s not the same little boy who only paid attention to the past and depressing things, but is now the man that doesn’t waste time, because the whistle in the poem symbolized that life goes by quick.
Danny DeBois
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I think this poem creatively uses a good combination of tone, imagery, and symbolism. Berryman used imagery to create a depressing tone in the beginning, depicting a scene where a young boy has lost his ball when it bounced into the harbor. The ball bouncing into the harbor symbolizes an individual losing his childhood; it happened unexpectedly and once it did happen, the boy was terrified. To further show the boy’s disappointment, Berryman explains how losing the ball was significant to the boy and how money wouldn’t easily replace it. Like childhood, once the ball was lost, it couldn’t be retrieved. The poem’s theme begins to develop at this moment, as Berryman wants the reader to understand that life is meaningful and hard to replace. He wants readers to understand that people must experience life to the fullest and enjoy every moment. The last part of the poem explains that the speaker of the poem will eventually “explore the deep and dark floor of the harbor.” In class today, we said this could symbolize the boy growing up and experiencing the real-world, but I think this section might actually be referring to suicide and death out of devastation resulting from loss for a few reasons. First, the ball represents a lost memory that no longer exists on Earth, and it’s in the harbor, so going in the harbor would seem to mean dying. Second, the second to last two lines in the poem say the speaker suffers and that he wants to move under the water, which literally means drowning. Third, John Berryman was depressed and suicidal when he wrote this poem, so it seems natural that he’d put such thoughts into his writing. Obviously, I think suicide is the wrong way to cope with loss, but this last section of the poem explains how loss at times can be devastating enough to incentivize a person to commit suicide.
Tereze Camaj
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"The Ball Poem" by John Berryman is a simple story of a young boy losing his ball. The boy is severely upset over the loss, which would normally seem like a great overreaction for the fact that children lose things such as their toys and balls often and usually make a little fuss about it. This ball is seen to most readers as symbolizing Berryman's childhood, and the boy becoming an adult, losing his childhood to which he was clinging onto for so long. The tone of the poem begins as very sad and remains so, but towards the end of the poem a different mood can be sensed by readers. The line "I suffer and move, my mind and my heart move" it is as though the author is accepting the changes in his life, although he is still suffering, and is learning to move on from his fleeting childhood. The true theme of this poem is to cherish every moment of you life, because it really is very short. And although the poem has an overall dark tone, it’s a good message to the readers of the poem.
Jake Korek
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This poem involves a lot of symbolism. A major part of this symbolism is the ball, which symbolizes Berryman's childhood. Berryman losing this ball refers to the idea that he is no longer a child. The general theme that can be taken away from this poem is that it is very difficult to get over losses. Some things may be harder to part from than others, such as a toy compared to a family member. However, either way, at times it can be very difficult to replace certain things in life, and when not replaced, people look for other ways to feel better. In John Berryman's case, he chose to commit suicide. This is obviously not the right decision to make, and I think that with enough guidance from others and thinking over the decision, Berryman would have realized that Suicide was not the right way to go. Overall, I think that "The Ball Poem" conveys a pessimistic theme to readers, which says that it is very difficult to deal with loss, but it must be done or else it can end up with severe consequences.
Lynn Jorgensen
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I look at "The Ball Poem" as the thoughts and reasoning behind someones pain. The author goes through the whole process out loud, if you will, explaining each thought and passing feeling to the reader. The more they think about their loss and their pain, the more they realize they need to get through and move on, but they also see that the memory of that pain will never leave them completely. In a way they go full circle, and everyone who has experienced loss in some way can relate to that; to the constant churning and changing feelings of their mind.
Paige Brabant
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"The Ball Poem" by John Berrymore depicts a story of symbolism through a ball. The author developed a character who through the loss of a ball realizes that he must move forward through his sadness because life is short and you must make the most of it. He begins the poem with a tone of sadness due to losing childhood and feeling as it is disappearing. He puts the perspective in a little boy who had lost his ball. This depression about growing up to fast and leaving his childhood behind is overwhelming as first for the boy. Soon the tone changes and the mood turns to optimistic. Now the author shows the boy moving forward and embracing life even though he is no longer a child. He now knows that he can not dwell on the past because there is no use in wasting precious time. He is on to a new chapter in life and is ready to move past chidhood.
"The Ball Poem" , by John Berrymore is a gothic piece of literature, or dark poem that tells the depressing story of a young boy loosing his ball, and the grief he gets because of it. When he lost his ball, he states he lost his childhood as well, it's totally normal to show such sense of grief when a loved one dies, but this much grief when just loosing a ball? I believe the ball is suppoused to be a symbol for something much larger than that, an important thing in his life that can never be replaced, and forever will be gone. Towards the middle of the poem I would of suspected this poem to have a very depressing main idea, but when I hit the last couple of stanza's I realized that the author is using his depressing experience, or story to tell his audience that life is something valuable, something you should always cherious, because it can be over every second, and when it's gone, it will never come back. This is shown in, "A whistle blows, the ball is out of signt." The whistle is suppoused to represent how fast life can end. Overall I really liked the poem because it wasn't your average theme, treat others the way you wanted to be treated, or everything you do will later on affect you life, to me it was more of a life lesson than a theme, it showed me that I shouldn't take life for granted and I should live every second of it to the fullest!
ReplyDeleteI believe that "The Ball Poem" was indeed a story inside of a story. The author John Berryman was portraying his struggle and hardships of his childhood, and life as a whole. He was trying to display his emotions to his audience through a poem. Many authors do this to convey a point to an audience. The theme of the poem could be how life is short so you must enjoy every second of it. Though the tone in the beginning of the poem is sad and dark, as the poem ends he begins to get brighter. He says "how to stand up and gradually light returns to the street." He is basically saying that you need to learn to get over the depression and stand yourself up because thats the only way you will feel happy once again. One can definitley relate and learn from this poem because everybody goes through a hard time, but this poem shows that you have to stand up and overcome that sadness.
ReplyDelete"The ball poem" by John Berryman is an extremely emotional and dark piece of writing about a boy losing something that meant the world to him. The author uses many literary elements to portrait the true feelings behind this story. For example, John Berryman uses the lost ball as a symbol of childhood and memories or once in a life time experiences that this person can not get back. A ball is an easily replaceable object but the experiences and feelings behind it can never be replaced. The tone the author uses creates a sad and depressing feel towards this boy and his situation by painting a picture of the boy. "As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down all his young days into the harbor where his ball went." This poem shows how there are times for sorrow but then you must bounce back and overcome your emotions and return to your normal self so you can live your life.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Florio pd 7
ReplyDelete"The ball poem" by John Berryman is an extremely emotional and dark piece of writing about a boy losing something that meant the world to him. The author uses many literary elements to portrait the true feelings behind this story. For example, John Berryman uses the lost ball as a symbol of childhood and memories or once in a life time experiences that this person can not get back. A ball is an easily replaceable object but the experiences and feelings behind it can never be replaced. The tone the author uses creates a sad and depressing feel towards this boy and his situation by painting a picture of the boy. "As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down all his young days into the harbor where his ball went." This poem shows how there are times for sorrow but then you must bounce back and overcome your emotions and return to your normal self so you can live your life.
When reading The Ball Poem, I pictured a young man trying to hold on to his life, and his childhood. He is extremly depressed that this time in his life is taken away and has to face the real world. I feel like he is terrifyed to let go of being a little boy because now he has to have responsibility for himself and fix what he has done wrong in any situation. This poem shares a very depressing and dark story, but in the end people have to face the light. This happens to everyone in life whether it is a loved one who has passed, a memory or something with centimental value. Anything in this world can break you down, just like it did to John Berryman. It is known that he was depressed most of his life and that he commited suicide because of it. Due to letting go and keeping the grief of leaving his childhood in his mind, it led him to make life changing decisions. People must learn that eventually they have to move on and you can't let your emotions take over your entire life.
ReplyDeleteJess Fink period 8
ReplyDelete"The ball Poem" by John Berryman is a poem about a man reflecting on his life. The ball he talks about symbolizes his childhood. The ball rolling into the harbor shows his childhood slowly slipping away as he becomes an adult. to his . he is scared to reach his adulthood because it means new responsibilities arise. As the poem progresses, the author realizes that loosing his "ball" is not the end of the world, but rather a new beginning. The end of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter of life is something that he must learn to live with because it is an important aspect of life. i believe this poem shares a very important message to readers and especially to me personally. it teaches us that there may be things we do not want to do but we must face our fears and continue on forward.
Michael Robinson Period 7
ReplyDelete"The Ball" poem by John Berryman made me think on how people react to depression and how it can affect them. In the poem he went through depresion by staring at the water and not doing anything. My reaction to this poem was how can someone act like this over a "want" no a "need". So to me the way he wrote the poem may have come from his own life and ow he may have dealt with depression but everyone deals with loss differently. But it was very intresting to see how other people deal with depresion.