Imagery and Figurative Languages in “The Juggler” Poem

Juggling is a very hard skill and pretty uncommon with a few people who can actually perform the skill. Few people in the world rarely perfect it, getting the coordination, timing and the ability to move multiple objects at the same time, sometimes when we watch a juggler we become so caught up in the moment and think that the jugglers are using magic even. In the poem “Jugglers” by Richard Wilbur, it seeks to capture the gravity defying nature of a juggler from balls, broom, a plank and a table. This is “The Juggler” poem analysis where this poem in reviewed. The Juggler with his props represents metaphor of the emotion of the speaker and the jugglers work signifies diction through its specific rhythm, imagery and figurative languages that transcend the jugglers amazing skills and quality.

In the first stanza Wilbur captures the natural occurrence of the balls movement, which includes the bouncing of the balls going up and down before stopping on the ground. The final line of the same stanza introduces the jugglers in which the speakers describe him as a “sky-blue juggler” using bright colors taking in five red balls and then in the second stanza with these balls “shakes gravity up”. The speaker uses the word choice of sky blue to connect the juggler to the thought of the sky representing the freedom he has and being above all making the juggler to be jealous of others. The speaker then describes the jugglers performance by taking notes of the state of the ball describing it as “roll around, wheel on his wheeling hands” which pictures the ball going around in a circle in his hands as he jugglers them around. The speaker then mentions that the jugglers focus on the ball helps the ball stay focus on its course and as it does it's almost like he’s “swinging a small heaven about his ears'' which is a way for the speaker to show the audience that he see the juggler as a person that commands nature by being able to move heaven around his body which is something that is beyond regular man by highlighting that the juggler “reels that heaven in landing it ball by ball” visually showing the reader so they can understand truly that the juggler is above all man for his skills which he performs that goes against nature and the natural power of a regular man. As the poem progresses, the speaker describe the juggler beginning to add items to his juggling furthering the amazement of the crowd as they watch his juggle higher and higher that “boys stam, and the girls shriek” which is a way of saying that the audience are on the edge of their seats very excited by the performance. The speaker then states that “all comes down and the bows and says good-bye” stated quickly at the end, signifying that the speaker is very disappointed that this amazing show ended so quickly because he was just so hooked on it.

The speaker uses figurative language throughout the poem to make the existence of the juggler as a dominant figure in the poem. In the first stanza the speaker opens up with “ A ball will bounce: but less and less” this is alliteration that he is using to illustrate the picture of the ball bouncing and then stopping to the reader. Then when the juggler is juggling his balls the speaker paints this picture as “the balls roll around, wheels on his wheeling hands” which is more alliteration to enhance the image of this action so the readers can see and hear the balls as they move in the air . Towards the ending of the show, the speaker uses Onomatopoeia through the crowds actions “the boys stamp, and the girls/shriek, and the drums booms” to show how invested in the show the crowds are. In the final stanza the speakers use repetition of “if'' to conjure a situation that everybody can relate to, in a way to describe that the juggler has lost his dominance once he stops performing. In the final line of the poem Wilbur states that “WHo has once won over the world weight” where the speaker uses alliteration to emphasize the sound of the W to picture the juggler as having this softness of his performance in the speakers eyes.

Wilbur uses poetic imitation with his phrasal structure of the poem. In the first stanza “It’s A light-hearted thing” this rare capitalization was done by purpose and “.. and the earth falls, So in our hearts from brilliance” he does it again by purpose to mimic the unrhythmic nature of the reality of the jugglers performance and it’s limits. In the following lines where he replaces it with rhythmic lyrical language “Settles and is forgot” with Oh, on his toes the table is tunning” where the sound are portrayed as songlike.

To conclude 'The Juggler' analysis paper, the speaker uses imagery and many figurative languages to boost that the speaker sees the juggler as inhuman in a way, in which the speaker expresses deep admiration for the juggler by bringing the juggler to the spotlight throughout the poem. This admiration goes so far that the speaker goes to even the length as as showing the impression that the juggler is of divine power himself with his use of description and giving his such dominance in the poem. But at the end of the day the speaker does recognize the juggler as a regular man like all men in the last stanza especially. This is a way to show that after the juggler stops performing he stops being divine and goes back to a regular man. Wilbur structures the poem in a way to give the speaker a chance to express his deep emotions for the jugglers performance through observation as he batters his hands.