Analysis Of Juggler By Richard Wilbur

In the first stanza Wilbur uses personification, diction and tone to portray the juggler as someone who gives the ball a meaning. In addition, the speaker’s interest in the juggler is revealed. For example, in the passage, it states, “A ball will bounce, but less and less. It’s not / A light-hearted thing, resents its own resilience.” (Lines 1-2) In this quote the speaker uses personification to reveal that the ball is not bouncing in a cheerful and joyous way. Instead the ball “resents its own resilience”. The speaker emphasizes the word “resents”, evoking in the readers a sense of solemnity and seriousness. Furthermore, by describing that the ball bounces, but eventually comes back down the speaker makes a comparison to life and how there will always be highs and lows.

The book “A River Runs Through It” was written by Norman Maclean, who used many literary devices throughout his writing. The story follows a representation of Norman Maclean’s life, in which he recalls memories of his brother, Paul, and their fishing adventures. While the story itself is fun and intriguing, it is Maclean’s use of figurative language that grabs the reader’s attention. One can almost relive the moments mentioned as if he/she were there when it happened. The three particular literary devices that stood out were simile, personification, and tone.

The poem maintains a specific structure that organizes six lines into each stanza and places major verbs in the beginning of each line, which allows the speaker to describe a different part of the juggler’s performance for each stanza and place emphasis on the actions of the juggler to underscore the amazement the speaker feels. The first stanza describes how gravity usually works, but introduces the juggler’s power to defy this gravity, while the second stanza describes how the juggler moves the balls around in order to show this superhuman power. The poem reaches its climax in the fourth stanza, ending the performance of the juggler, and the last stanza describes how even though the act is over, the juggler has left a sense of awe and inspiration into the speaker. This specific organization helps the speaker transition his feeling of the performance from the beginning to the end, successfully showing the juggler has left him in wonder. Furthermore, in the second stanza, Richard Wilbur places the verbs, “Learning,” “Grazing,” “Cling,” and “Swinging” in the beginning of each line, putting the emphasis on those words and pausing for a moment before going into the important verbs (9,10,11,12). This syntax helps the poet describe what makes the speaker so amazed by the juggler, the specific and graceful movement of the juggler as he throws the balls up and down the air.

As the poem begins, the reader immediately visualizes someone playing outside in a “polka dot dress,” and this someone is the personification of poetry (1). Forman uses

In the poem, the speaker uses figurative language to reveal and portray that the objects that the juggler juggles have a sense or life of their own and how their actions make the show even more impressive on the juggler’s end. Whether it’s the ball's’ “own resilience” as it bounces less and less or “wheel on his wheeling hands”, the figurative language describes an inanimate object that is subject to the laws of nature and forces such as gravity which is shown by the line “falling is what it loves.” However, under the hands of the juggler, it’s as if the juggler has changed the ball’s natural tendencies to his own, becoming the ball’s own force that it has to follow. The juggler appears to be as an omnipotent

Richard Wilbur, a legendary figure and the poet of "The Juggler", withholds great historical background unknown to many individuals. Despite of young age, Wilbur composed numerous short-stories, poems and editorials for college newspaper. In consideration with a majority of the masterpieces, a prominent theme exhibited throughout each is based upon the observations of surroundings and the natural world. Historically, Wilbur's involvement within World War II contributed significant influence in various poems. Similarly, "The Juggler" primarily emphasizes the notion of fluctuations involved within juggling, comparing such to harsh realities of daily routines.

“I’d go on my two bare feet. But when, with my brother’s jack-knife, I had cut me a long limber horse with a good thick knob for a head…The willow knob with the strap jouncing between my thighs was the pommel and yet the poll of my nickering pony’s head,” says the main character. He basks in the glory of his younger years, and longs for a time when he was oblivious to all of the evils of the world. Containing many simple phrases, the structure of the poem brings an airy vibe to the mystical imagery. “My teeth bared as we wheeled and swished through the dust again. I was the horse and the rider, and the leather I slapped to his rump spanked my own behind,” reads the poem. Descriptive verbs allow the reader to see the character’s movements. The reader is able to easily understand that the character is comparing himself to his horse which he becomes one with. The poem is written in a first person point of view in which the character is within and beside

The speaker wants the readers, who take up the roll of students of the poem, to envision poetry as a color slide. The speaker wishes the reader to understand that he cannot see the full detail of the slide if it is not held into light. When thinking of this in a metaphorical way, the speaker is asking the reader to examine poetry and see all of its beauty and self-interpreted meaning. Most readers tend to base their interpretation on methods they have been taught, but what the speaker wants the reader to do is to use their own mind to illuminate the poems meaning, much how you use you’re to eyes to decipher visual imagery. The sense motif continues into the next verse switching from visualization to hearing.

Everyday life can be monotonous and lackluster, but every once in a while someone will come along and share their talents with others for their amusement. Richard Wilbur’s “Juggler” conveys the speaker's amazement and appreciation toward people and their actions through vivid descriptions of the juggler.

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

Wilbur describes the juggler as happy in the moment through imagery revealing that the speaker may be going through a rough patch in his life. When the juggler is performing it is described as “Landing it ball by ball… Oh, on his toe the table is turning, the broom’s balancing up on his nose, and the plate whirls on the tip of the broom!” as the children applaud and cheer the juggler on until “he bows and says good-bye.”. When the juggler is done putting on such a fantastic show he “is tired now… and though the plate lies flat on the table top, for him we batter our hands who has won for once over the world’s weight.”. The use of imagery about the plate lying flat on the table instead of the plate whirling shows us the juggler is tired but we still clap for him because in that moment of him putting on a show he made people happy and made no mistakes. The juggler “swinging a small heaven above his ears” is happy in the moment. The use of imagery

The whole second half of the poem is one giant extended metaphor!  Wilbur compares the difficulties of growing up those of an ‘iridescent creature’ – a ‘dazed starling’ that in spite of difficulties, ultimately flies free.  It serves as a metaphor for life’s ups and downs.

Competitive, this is the imagery that this poem is creating and the reason why the author did this is to show us how competitive this swimmer is. This swimmer is in a race and he wants to win, the author shows us that the swimmer was well trained and ready for this. The author uses many imagery in his poem and it lets us picture in our head what is going on. When you read the poem you picture everything, nothing is a blur and you know what exactly is going on in this poem. To me it was like watching the whole thing in my head while I was reading it, without the imagery the author put in I would understand a thing about what was going on. “He flips, converts, and is gone all in one. We watch him for signs. His arms are steady at the catch, his cadent feet tick in the stretch, they know the lesson well.” In these two sentences you can picture what is going on, and in these two sentences the author shows us again how good of technique this swimmer

Often at times there are many voices in one poem. These voices represent the different views that come from the same material that are portrayed by the buzz that the bee elicit in the hive. The proposal that Collins is trying to exude is that there is never one way to read a poem. The type of approach will vary with reader and who they are, but by having a radical approach it will help to enhance our understanding of what the poem means. Collins wants the reader to feel free when analyzing a poem: “I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” As a teacher you try to pummel depth into your students’ minds and push them into the direction of understanding. The speaker declares that the grapple to illuminating meaning and the amount of time where the reader does not understand adds to the worth of the poem. The parallel to the surface of water, where you have not attained the depth even though you know it’s there is important to how much it takes to find the true meaning of a poem. While reading this poem it have the outlook on how poetry places more of aln emphasis on us to be able to pick apart the undisclosed meaning and essentially to be able to pull apart the poem without a fixed structure. By doing it this way it is able to help the audience to build upon skills to help interpret and understand, which substantially is important throughout any source of literature. We

Next, the speaker talks about the fish’s eyes, larger, shallower, and yellower than hers. The different pieces of fishing line caught in his jaw shows how many times he either escaped or was let go by the other fishers. Then the description of the rented boat, the parts of the boat that all turned into a rainbow.