Two Stories about Flying
The Ball Poem
Explain what the boy learns from losing his ball.
The ball is gone. A boy watches his ball go 'merrily bouncing' down the street and into the harbour water. The ball sounds happy; the boy is not. That contrast sets the mood.
Deep grief. 'No use to say "O there are other balls".' An 'ultimate shaking grief' holds the boy. He stands 'rigid, trembling', staring into the water, as if all his young days went down with the ball. It was full of memories.
Why the poet does not help. 'I would not intrude on him.' To offer 'a dime' (ten cents) for another ball would be 'worthless'. The boy must learn this lesson himself. 'Money is external': it can buy a new ball, never that ball.
What the boy is learning.
- 'first responsibility in a world of possessions': this is his first real loss, and things we own can be lost;
- 'balls will be lost always': loss is part of life;
- 'the epistemology of loss': what it means to lose something, and 'how to stand up' again.
This is 'what every man must one day know, and most know many days'.
Behind his desperate eyes. Desperate here means hopeless. The poem is written in free verse, with no regular rhyme. Think about a time you lost something you loved: how you felt, and how you got over it.
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