The Juggler Richard Wilbur Analysis

Circuses are fun to go to. They entertain an audience with attention-grabbing tricks and acts that involve a variety of individuals, animals, and props. One quintessential aspect of the circus is the juggler. Not only does a juggler juggle balls, they juggle bowling pins, sharp objects, fire, etc., while still trying to keep the audience engaged and intrigued. In Richard Wilbur’s poem, “The Juggler,” Wilbur describes a juggler through the use of poetic elements all the while revealing details about the speaker. In the poem, the speaker analyzes the juggler very diligently and specifically. Throughout the poem, the speaker examines various aspects of the juggler’s performance. For example, the lines, “Grazing his finger ends, cling to their courses there,” provide poetic imagery to the readers which allow them to vividly witness the balls leaving his hands and maintaining their directed course. The speaker also utilizes a suspenseful tone, as seen in lines nineteen through twenty-one, to highlight the difficult task that the juggler places on himself with the addition of tables, brooms, and plates to his juggling routine. Also the use of personification in line three shows how the materials he juggles are always

The statement, “...‘Damn, what a show,’ we cry,...” directly alludes to the speaker and other circus attendees’ admiration for the juggler’s act. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker begins to acknowledge his appreciation for the juggler. In lines twenty-nine and thirty, the speaker says, “For him we batter our hands who has won for once over the world’s weight.,” which signifies his recognition of the juggler’s talent in that he has mastered a skill that defies a natural external force, gravity. Overall, the progression of the poem shows the speaker’s sincere enthrallment with the juggler and his skillful