Juggler Richard Willbur Analysis

As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)

Moreover, the speaker’s admiration for the juggler is present when the speaker states, “It takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls...” (Line 6) Astonished, the speaker

The theme of new beginnings and the harness of the past in another natural setting is discussed again in the second stanza, but now with a focus on time. The visual image presented my the passage as the sun hesitating and losing its direction show allow the reader to observe the symbolism of the sun. The sun universally represents time, the rise and set of sun symbolizing the beginning and ending of each day, days leading into months, years, and lifetimes. The rise of the sun is a new beginning, but it "seems to hesitate," and "lose its/ incandescent aim." The new beginning brought on by the rising of the sun was held back and lost "in that second." Hope and the fresh start were halted by the sun, who was not ready to let time pass and continue. The passage concludes with an affirmation of the symbolism, that "the past is brighter yet" than the sun who could not pull the new start cleanly into the future.

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 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

Since it does, when reading each line, there is a resilient connection that allows the reader to put together and feel for what the narrator is speaking of. As each line is metrically linked, the words are further recited in a durable voice and the poem is virtually put together, musically. In the first and second lines of the third stanza, an apostrophe, a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent person or entity, is presented, “We smile, but O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.”

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.

In the third stanza, the diction of “heaven” and “noble” allows the speaker to craft an image of an almost godlike juggler. This view of the juggler creates the tone of amazement and ardent which breaks through the previous gloomy description of the earth in the first stanza which “falls/ So in our hearts from brilliance” (lines 3-4). This reveals that the world the juggler has made, unlike the earth which the speaker doesn’t appear to have fond feelings of, is a joyful and light-hearted place that the speaker is easily captivated by. As the juggler “reels that heaven in” (line 16), creates an atmosphere of an almost unearthly experience. This description of the juggler as a master of spiritual elements allows readers to view how the speaker's attitude is uplifted and enlightened.

The enchantment in this poem begins by the earth welcoming the speaker back home. This speaker expresses that, “She took me back so tenderly.” This statement exemplifies to the reader that death is not a scary process. In this case, the earth is being portrayed as a woman. This is significant because women are often portrayed as being nurturing and caring. For the reader, this can trigger memories or ideas of who the reader would picture the earth as. Whether that be a mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, etc. the reader can

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.

The poem contains two stanzas with two different settings. One might not know much about the first stanza; however, in the second one the speaker is next to an ocean, perhaps, at a beach. So, while the first stanza symbolizes the mindset of the speaker, the inner dream, the second stanza symbolizes the outer dream which is what we see; life. The poem

A variety of literary devices are used in this poem. After the shift, she repeats the phrase “I rise” for emphasis. Similes show how strong and persevering the speaker is. She compares herself to dust. No matter how many times you clean, dust will always come back. She even compares herself to the sun and moon, which surely rise each morning and night, to prove her confidence. The poem also uses hyperbole and personification. It says: “You may shoot me with your words,/You may cut me with

Next, "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" creates an illusion of a mind becoming unstable by describing the speaker's irrationality. The speaker's irrationality is represented in the third stanza and fourth stanza. It is evident that the speaker is beginning to hear voices, which is why she states "And then I heard them lift a Box" (line 9). The voices that the speaker is hearing are beginning to take over her mind as she expresses "And creak across my Soul," which gives the reader's the illusion of the speaker losing all control. All the problems that the speaker is experiencing as a result of her mental stability are beginning to take their toll, which is evident through the statement "Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll" (line 11-12). The speaker has now fallen into a state of irrationality, and her mind has suffered enough, and consequently thoughts of suicide plague the speaker. The statement "As all the Heavens were a Bell" represents the speaker's feelings that her mind has a chance of being at peace again if she ends her existing insanity, and she must therefore act upon her suicide thoughts (line 13). The speaker is trying to convince herself to follow through with her thoughts of suicide, as clearly indicated in her statement "Wrecked, solitary, here-." The speaker

The speaker feels that faith has disappeared and has separated her or him from the "ebb and flow" of life. This lost faith is compared to a sea that is very similar to the sea described in the first stanza. Words of lightness and beauty are used once more. The shore "lays like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd." There is a sense of encompassing joy in this phrase. This bright and joyful image is then contrasted by the last five lines of the stanza. "The Sea of Faith" has now retreated, like a tide withdraws from the shore. It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the words of these five lines and the words from the first stanza. The sweet "night-air"becomes "the night-wind," and the cliffs that were once "glimmering and vast" are still vast, but only dreary edges. The sea that was "round" and "full" has now left the world empty and exposed. Similarly, the speaker has lost his faith and feels alone and vulnerable.

Another interesting thing about the first stanza is one run on sentence where the only punctuation is a colon, interspersed commas and only one period. It creates urgency, to reach the end of the line and the stanza and dive into the depths of this dream world. There is also a dual meaning here, with the descent into the Stalinist oppression being almost a parallel to the depths of the dream world.