NCERT Class 10 English Chapter 5 The Ball Poem
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 5 The Ball Poem (poem)
Thinking About the Poem
(Page 47)
In pairs, attempt the following questions
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 would not intrude on him” because he does not want to intervene in the natural process of learning. He wants the boy to learn the meaning of loss on his own. He also doesn’t offer him money to buy another ball because that would be worthless. He wants the boy to learn the lesson of responsibility.
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. 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.
Question 3.
What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
Answer:
“In the world of possessions” means that the world is full of materialistic things. Here 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
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 ‘He senses first responsibility in a world of possessions’.
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 lost and cannot be brought back. He is sensing his first responsibility as he has lost the ball. The boy will learn how to stand up and leave the losses behind as he would have understood the true meaning and nature of loss.
Extra Questions and Answers
Reference-to-Context Questions
Read the stanza given below and answer the questions that follow:
Question 1.
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.
(a) The boy in the above stanza seems to be in a
Answer:
sad
(b) He stands stiff and trembling while staring at his
Answer:
ball
(c) The boy feels that with his ball that has fallen into a harbour, his childhood memories have also been washed off. (True/False)
Answer:
True
(d) The word that means same as ‘final’ is
Answer:
ultimate
Question 2.
I would not intrude on him;
A dime, another ball, is worthless.
Now He senses first responsibility
In a world of possessions.
(a) The poet does not want to ………. the boy’s thoughts.
Answer:
intrude
(b) According to the poet, from the loss of the ball, the boy would learn what it means to lose something in a ………..
Answer:
world of possessions
(c) The poet wants to give monetary help to the boy for buying a new ball. (True/False)
Answer:
False
(d) The word in the stanza means same as ‘encroach upon’.
Answer:
intrude
Question 3.
Money is external.
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 stand up.
(a) Money is external as it cannot buy
Answer:
memories
(b) The boy is learning how amidst losses.
Answer:
to stand up
(c) This episode will surely teach the boy the true meaning of life and nature of loss. (True/False)
Answer:
True
(d) ……………. in the stanza means ‘the study of the nature of knowledge it self.
Answer:
Epistemology
Short Answer Question
Question 1.
‘He senses first responsibility’—What responsibility is referred to here? [2018]
Answer:
The ‘responsibility’ referred to here is relates to learning what it is like to experience grief at the loss of a much loved possession.
Long Answer Question
Question 1.
‘Possession in nine-tenths of the law’ How far does the contents of the poem, ‘The Ball Poem’, illustrate this idiom?
Answer:
The boy in the poem has lost his ball as it went rolling down the street and into the water. The loss of the ball is a great educator about the value of possession and the responsibility of keeping one’s possessions safely. The boy’s personal life is shattered as his personal possession has slipped away and lies irretrievable, and encompassing all his consciousness.
Though he is consoled by others with the offer of a substitute ball, or a dime to buy a ball, these prove worthless, and the loss awakens in him a sense of responsibility. The boy learns to stand up for his rightful possessions, besides learning to look after them by striving to be a responsible guardian.