The title of the poem i.e. The Ball Poem is very symbolic and has deep meaning behind it. A young child who is not aware of harsh realities of life. He keeps enjoying by playing with his ball. He develops an emotional attachment with it.

Hence, when he loses the ball, he gets sorrowful and sad. He will not feel good even if a new ball is given to him because money cannot buy emotions and attachment.

In this Ball also symbolises the things which a person has and loses someday. It symbolises poet’s father who committed suicide when the poet was 11 years old.

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The message of the poem The Ball Poem is that we get things in our life which become a part of our lives. We feel that they will always remain with us. Thus we form an attachment with them. However a day comes when the thing is no more with us.

At such a situation, we feel depressed and hopeless. According to the poet, losing our possessions is a harsh reality of our life on earth. We cannot get away from it. Hence we have to face such a situation and then try to move on.

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Following literary devices have been used in the poem The Ball Poem:

1. Personification: Personification is a finger of speech which shows attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human. In the poem, the poet describes ball merrily bouncing down the street. Merry means happy. It is a human characteristic which is given to the ball.
2. Metaphor: It is a literary device in which a word or phrase is symbolically applied to a thing to which it is not literally applicable. In the poem, poet says, “balls will be lost always“. Balls here symbolise possessions which we lose. It also refers to the childhood which if lost never comes back.
3. Apostrophe: It is a literary device in which a person is addressed who is either dead or physically not present. In the poem, the poet says, “balls will be lost aways, little boy“. The boy is physically not present with the poet.
4. Repetition: It is a literary device in which a word or phrase is repeated two or more times. In the poem the poet repeats the word “what” two lines. “what, what is he to do?”.
5. Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. e.g. “who has lost his ball”, “what, what is he to do?”, “no one buys a ball back”, “the deep and dark floor of harbour”, “move my mind and my heart move with all that move me”.
6. Enjambment: It is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. e.g. “I saw it go merrily, down the street”
7. Symbolism: It is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In the poem, ball and balls represent childhood, possessions and even the father of poet.

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