NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Poem 5 The Ball Poem

The Ball Poem NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Poem 5

The Ball Poem NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

The Ball Poem Thinking about the Poem

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 decides not to intrude on him. He does not want to intervene in the natural process of learning. He does not offer him money to buy another ball because he wants the child to learn his 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 child has a long association with the ball. The ball is linked to the memories of days when he played with it. That is the reason why the child is upset at the loss of the ball.

Question 3.
What does “In the world of possessions” mean?
Answer:
It means that the world is full of materialistic things and people give maximum importance to these things. This is the reason why they are upset at the loss of things.

Question 4.
Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.
Answer:
No, the boy has never lost anything earlier. It was his first loss. The line “He senses first responsibility” suggests it.

Question 5.
What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Tty to explain this in your own words.
Answer:
According to the poet the child has learnt his first lesson. He has learnt the sense of responsibility. It is a learning process. He has learnt how to face the loss of something very important to us.

Question 6.
Have you ever lost something you liked very much? Write a paragraph describing how you felt then and saying whether —and how — you got over your loss?
Answer:
Classroom Activity.

The Ball Poem Extra Questions and Answers

The Ball Poem 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

(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

(d) ……………. in the stanza means ‘the study of the nature of knowledge it self.
Answer:
Epistemology

The Ball Poem 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.

The Ball Poem 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.