The Juggler Richard Wilbur Analysis

“Advice For a Prophet” by Richard Wilbur is a riveting letter to a prophet speaking the word of God. In it, He uses outstanding figurative language and imagery to prove his point. Truth should always be the answer and the way you talk to a group of people. This could be with a normal speech or praising god to the people of a city. Without it, no one will believe anything.

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

Certain things some people do can seem beyond human powers, even defying gravity. In “The Juggler,” the poet Richard Wilbur describes the awe and wonder felt by the speaker watching the juggler; the speaker is amazed by the gracefulness of the balls flying in the air and even portrays the juggler as reeling in heaven itself. Through the use of imagery portraying the juggler’s magical performance, specific structure and syntax of the poem, and diction that elicits the godly powers of the juggler, the speaker describes the juggler as a superhuman who defies gravity while expressing the speaker’s own inability to overcome the challenges in his daily life and thus his negative view of the world.

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

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.

The use of imagery in The Juggler shows us that it is physically hard to balance the many tasks of life. “[The juggler] trades it all for a broom, a plate, a table. Oh, on his toe the table is turning, the broom’s balancing up on his nose,” (18-19). The crowds reaction shows how

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.

The rather unusual poem, The Juggler, by Richard Wilbur vividly describes the actions of a juggler and also plays on the theme of life as an emotional roller coaster, by using irregular rhyme scheme, alliteration, thought-provoking diction, and imagery to set the foundation for his message.

The opening lines of the poem exhibit personification, saying, “[The ball is not] A light-hearted thing, resents its own resilience. / Falling is what it loves.” The use of personification humanizes the balls, providing them emotions, as it loves to fall because it is being active in the air, a contrast from being tediously set on the ground, for it “settles and is forgot.” Like the balls, the audience too loves to be active, rather than settle and ‘be forgot.’ The first feature of imagery in the poem is in line six, in which the speaker states, “It takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls.” The physical description of the juggler provides insight into the juggler’s character: sky-blue is regarded as a pleasant color seen when the sun is out and the juggler’s talent brings joy to its audience. The tone of the stanza is seemingly disconsolate, meant to reflect the lives of the audience, with words such as: “less,” “resents,” “falling,” “settles,” and “forgot.” This is prior to when the juggler is introduced in the final line, as the juggler’s performance stimulates the audience, making them forget about their dull days outside of the performance.

“The Sirens” by Richard Wilbur dramatizes the innate desire to experience life to the fullest. The author parallels this to the Siren’s song that ancient travelers were drawn towards. The Sirens were creatures in ancient mythology who lured sailors that would later be shipwrecked on the shore of creatures’ island. They enticed sailors with their delighting songs luring them closer, but when these people gave way to their burning desires they ultimately lose everything. The Greek story of the Sirens acts as a metaphor for the human call to walk the road that is their life and though we may have regrets, if one chooses not to follow the road than they will never truly find their self.

Through Wilbur’s writing, it is evident that he has an inclination towards nature and this could have started when he was a child due to how he grew up. Richard Wilbur was born on March 1, 1921 and died on October 14, 2017(“Richard Wilbur” 1). New York was where he was born, however, he and his family ended up moving to New Jersey when Wilbur was two years old("On Freedom’s Ground" 185). Growing up, Wilbur had lived in a house on a farm in New Jersey. Simultaneously, Wilbur had lived not far from the city, but it was far enough to not have friends other than his brother("On Freedom’s Ground" 185). So, in his free time, he and his brother would enjoy themselves by wandering the forests and their farm and explored all the nature that was around

The diction also contributes to creating imagery; words such as “chattering”, “suspended”, and “dangled” all help to paint a picture in the reader’s mind of the way

The extraordinary use of personification and metaphor is very effective in the poem itself. The poem accounts for multiple objects or ‘gods’ as the title suggests as almost each new paragraph

Underlying this essay is the discussion point that scientific and ethical aspects have a connection with Gravity’s Rainbow, most of all in the concepts of gravity and sloth, and that they have to be deliberate together in a physico analysis. For this purpose, I should analyze the certainty metaphorical role of different concepts of gravity in Gravity’s Rainbow, from the seventeenth-century conflict between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to the theory of relativity formulated by Albert Einstein, and examine the consequences of this view for notions of force, impedance, grace and sloth. Firstly will present the relation of gravity to concepts of force and fiction and to ethical thoughts around the difference between Elect and Preterite in Pynchon’s novel. After that I will compare this presentation of seventeenth-century understandings of gravity with growing in Einstein’s theory of relativity, which characterize the pessimistic and optimistic readings of the novel to which Newtonian and Leibnizian understandings of gravitation alternately give rise. The role of