How Does Richard Wilbur Describe The Juggler

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.

To begin, the poem Callum written by Milton Acorn has a variety amount of poetic devices, which helps the poetry have more meaning and depth. Throughout the poem, the author was able to use similes, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, imagery, and hyperbole. Furthermore, the author uses similes and imagery to illustrate Callum’s handsome appearance, since he had hair like mustard-weed;.../that tangles inside his head.” (Acorn 1-6). This demonstrates that Callum’s hair stood up in tufts of yellow like a mustard-weed plant and his shoulders were probably brawny and boxy like a scoop, thus using imagery as well. Also, it is clear that Callum had clear, bright eyes, since he is referring to a lake which is transparent, in which one can see the

Updike continues his portrayal of the vast splendor of nature through metaphors, similes, and diction pertaining to a large flock of starlings that flew and over and lit on the gold course where the two men in the poem are playing. The approaching flock of birds seem like a “cloud of dots” (Line 16) on the horizon to observers. The author compares The image of the steadily approaching flock of starlings to iron filings (the birds) stuck to a magnet through a piece of paper (the horizon). The men stand in awe of the black, writhing, approaching mass, much like children do when the magnet picks up the filings through the paper. By comparing the approaching birds to the magnet and iron filing scenario in a simile, Updike subtly likens the men reaction to a small child’s reaction when he/she sees the “magic” of the magnet and the iron filings for the first time. The simile purpose is to show how nature can make grown men feel like small, free little kids when experiencing nature at its best. As the observers continue to watch the looming flock of birds, the flock became one huge pulsating mass of birds that seemed as “much as one thing as a rock.” (Line 22) Updike once again eloquently portrays nature as absolutely stunning to show how nature affects man. The birds descended in a huge “evenly tinted” (Line

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.

In Katharine Brush’s “Birthday Party,” imagery and diction are used to describe the events of the dinner and how it flew south.

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 stanza four the poet is flashing back to his childhood and telling us some other words that he got in trouble for. “Other words that got me into trouble were fight and fright, wren and yarn.” (29-31) Even though he got in trouble by his teacher for not knowing the words, his mother helped him understand them in a different way. “Wren are small, plain birds.” (34) “My mother made birds out of yarn.” (37) Here he is shown how two different things can become the same thing.

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

The use of the imagery here allows the reader to take a closer look and see the beauty in the barnacle. “And underneath two or three, / rages of green weed hung down” (20-21). Colors are also used again when the speaker states “The dramatic reds and blacks” (30). Yet another line using color states “and the pink swim bladder” (32).Using color makes the parts of the fish pop out to the reader. The entire poem is filled with visual imagery, but there are also lines that give the reader auditory and sensory imagery as well.

“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

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.

Throughout the poem the author uses imagery to describe the juggler’s appearance and the tricks he is accomplishing in his show. For example, Wilbur states, “it takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls...to shake our gravity up.” (lines 6-7). The author’s description of the juggler as someone who can “shake our gravity up” (line 7) shows that the juggler is someone who has a tremendous impact on the audience and the speaker because the audience is full of serious people and the juggler evokes happiness and astonishment from the audience. Moreover, by saying this the audience is able to get an insight into the life of the speaker; we are able to see that not a lot of things happen in the speaker's life that make the speaker happy. Additionally, Wilbur shows the reader the the juggler is performing, the author says, “ 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!” (lines 9-21). We can see the juggler as he is performing his great trick and how the crowd is happy and amazed at what he is accomplishing through his performance when the author says, “ Damn, what a show,we cry…” ( line 21). Having the crowd cheer at the juggler as he completes his trick of the balancing act showed that people are made happy with small things like the juggling trick the juggler was performing for the crowd.

Throughout the poem, Scannell successfully uses various forms of imagery to create an effect and develop setting, my favourite being his use of word choice. In this poem, word choice is used to bring the sights and smells of the travelling fair to life. For example, Scannell describes the "spinning lights" of the carnival as fizzing, a word we would not normally associate with lights. Instead, it would usually be used to describe the bubbling of soda or the tingling feeling when eating sherbet. However, this word choice is effective as it creates synaesthesia by appealing to our sense of sound, sight and touch. Moreover, it helps the readers imagine the bright spinning lights gently buzzing and blinking away.

The first stanza contains examples of figurative language and imagery which reveal the speaker’s respect for the juggler. Wilbur uses figurative language and compares a ball to the earth, saying “Falling is what it loves, and the earth falls/ so in our hearts from brilliance,/ Settles and is forgot.” (Line 3-5). The author also uses colorful, bright imagery to describe the juggler, saying “It takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls/ To shake our gravity up.” (Lines 6-7). The combination of this figurative language, along with the colorful, bright, and positive imagery used to describe the juggler, reveal the speaker’s admiration of the juggler. According to the speaker, the earth becomes forgotten and falls, like a ball, from our hearts and attention. The juggler is able to ‘shake our gravity up’ and reinvoke excitement in wonder in the audience’s hearts and minds through juggling. The bright, colorful imagery paints the juggler in a positive light, revealing the speaker’s respect and admiration for them.

To start of, the poem has an appeal of imagination and has many features that show this. First of, we have numerous metaphors, "I am a thousand winds that blow" and "I am the diamond glints on snow" are examples. These metaphors are indirectly comparing him to the greatness, to the amounts of them, trying to relate to us by telling us how he is everywhere. He might not be here in person but he is all around as used in the metaphors the wind, in the snow, in sunlight that ripens the grains everywhere. Second, the poem has the symbol of "do not stand at my