Literary Analysis

Ball is Life: A Response to “Fast Break”

In sports, you never know when a missed shot, interception, strikeout, etc. will cost you the game. Just like you never know when a horrific tragedy will halt a great life. In Edward Hirsch’s “Fast Break,” in memory of Dennis Turner (1946-1984), Hirsch describes a perfectly executed fast break, using intense imagery and detailed evaluation of each player, leading to perfection and the completion of the fast break. In this poem, Hirsch uses enthralling verbs, variation of positive and negative word connotation, and effectively awkward line breaks to show how teamwork will lead to great success and to symbolize the life of Dennis Turner in a perfectly executed play from the sport he loved, basketball.

In Hirsch’s “Fast Break,” teamwork stays prevalent throughout the poem. For one, the format used throughout this poem revolves around the idea of teamwork: “Fast Break” is written in couplets, representing people can never stand by themselves; you need your friends and family, or in this case, your teammates. Furthermore, the speaker continuously uses multiple words and phrases to visualize each teammate perfecting the fast break beautifully, such as “perfectly,”(5) “already,”(8) and “letting the play develop in front of him”(14). Nobody’s perfect, and the speaker seemingly does not think much of their starting center. Even the “gangly”(3) starting center “for once”(3) completes his duties by willingly boxing his man out. He reels in the ball and brings it in “like a cherished possession”(6). After the gangly center does his duty, he throws “a strike/to the outlet who is already shoveling”(7-8). Then, the outlet, like the center, shows magnificent execution as he’s preparing, waiting for the outlet pass. Then, as the outlet passes the ball, his time to shine has arrived, and he needs to exchange the ball with the “other guard”(9). In lines 9-10, the ball is exchanged beautifully, manipulating the “flat-footed defender”(10). Once again executing the play to perfection, Hirsch shows not only the complete precision of the offense in the fast break, but even adds the defense falling apart, conveying how extraordinarily well the play manipulates the defense, as the defender “looks stunned and nailed to the floor”(11).

The play pauses when Hirsch stops the play for one line in a thought-provoking simile. Line 15 states “in slow motion, almost exactly,” and line 16 pauses the play very briefly: “like a coach’s drawing on the blackboard.” The two positions not yet mentioned are the two forwards, but they are simultaneously doing their part: “racing down the court/the way that forwards should”(17-18). They move side by side, “together as brothers”(20) as they fill the lanes. The other team’s guard “commits to the wrong man”(24) and the power-forward “explodes”(25) past them. The power-forward falls to the ground but “swiveling back to see an orange blur/floating through the net”(35-36), he watches the orange leather fall through the net, magnifying the fast break’s perfection by every teammate. Without the precise work of every teammate, the play would be unsuccessful.

While teamwork continues its extreme prevalence throughout this poem, there’s much more to “Fast Break.” The storied life of Hirsch’s friend Dennis Turner shows up many times as “Fast Break” demonstrates the life of Dennis Turner in a play of basketball. The first 26 lines symbolize the stage in his life without any disease, and his exhilarating freshness and constant activity clarifies he’s living the ideal way. Some sharp verbs to illustrate Turner’s energy include “spinning”(7), “shoveling”(8), and “scissoring”(10). While some verbs emphasize the peaking emergence of his life, Hirsch honors Turner by complementing his attitude towards life. Turner respected life and “cherished”(6) it; additionally, he lets life come to him, like the guard “letting the play develop in front of him”(14). Turner lived his life well, and in an interview with Hirsch, it sounds like Turner was a good man. However, just like millions of other citizens in this world throughout time, Turner caught a severe disease that would cost him his life.

Toward the end of “Fast Break,” right before the fast break is complete, several words with negative connotation occur, symbolizing the last few years, months, even days of Turner’s life after hearing about his disease. After the majority of the poem shows positive, action-packed diction, “losing”(29), “inexplicably”(30), “falling”(30), and “hitting”(30) symbolize the negative times occurring in the life of Turner. After the so-called forward hits the floor, a wonderful thirty-second line sums this poem up beautifully: “for the game he loved like a country.” Line 32 not only mentions the basketball game, but the life game. Turner loved both. And lastly, as the forward turns back to “see an orange blur”(33), Turner sits on his death bed in his last moments of life. In the last line of the poem, the forward sees the ball “floating perfectly through the net”(34). This symbolizes the last second of Turner’s life; he looks “back”(33) on the great life he lived. And then, just like that, the poem ends. The play is over. His life is over.

Hirsch continues to exemplify Turner’s life throughout “Fast Break,” and he symbolizes Turner’s life in an honorable manner. Hirsch clarifies Turner’s love for basketball precisely: “for the game he loved like a country,”(32) underscoring a necessity for everybody, love for something. Hirsch uses his friend Turner as a prime example to magnify the theme of his poem: love is a necessity. That’s why Turner lived a great life.