The Juggler Figurative Language

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Juggler Timed Write

In Richard Wilbur’s poem, Juggler, there’s a juggler who performs for a show and the crowd loves it. Throughout his performance, he trades his balls for something more complex, a table, broom, and plate. Both figurative language and the shift in tone help with describing the juggler. The juggler is described in great detail by the speaker and helps in describing the speaker.

Figurative language is greatly used in Juggler to help with describing the juggler. Throughout the poem the speaker makes the juggler look amazing and greatly talented. Being able to shift from juggling balls to something complicated like a table, a broom, and a plate take a lot of practice and expertise. Also, the crowd shouting in excitement shows how great the juggler is. “Damn, …show more content…
The stanzas in Juggler all differ but all have a positive attitudes show in them. Whether it be the juggler admiring his passion for juggling or the speaker talking about the crowd’s happiness. The speaker talks about the juggler’s juggling with the balls and how its what he loves. It’s natural to him and has a passion for it. In the poem it says, ”Grazing his finger ends, cling to their courses there, swinging a small heaven about his ears.” (10-12) He compares the juggling of the balls to heaven. In line 2 the speakers describes the balls when they bounce. “A light-hearted thing, resents its own resilience. Falling is what it loves, and earth falls” (2-3) The speaker talks about the balls bouncing and uses the comparison to show the similarity between the bouncing balls and humans. The balls bouncing and not coming back up represents humans and sadness or depression. It is easier to feel sad than find reasons to be happy. However, the speaker has the juggler juggling the balls. The balls are on a repetitive cycle of going around, continually going up and never
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