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Summary Of Juggler By Richard Wilbur

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In ‘Juggler’ by Richard Wilbur, a juggler gives a dynamic, practically divine performance to an audience that expresses an almost cult-like devotion to him. Through images of the juggler’s hypnotic performance that seem to defy our most innate concepts of motion, diction that provokes thoughts of religion and the idea of fate, and a rhyme scheme that seems to bounce back and forth as if it were a part of the juggler’s act, the speaker illuminates the complex relationship between humans and their beliefs and how these beliefs contribute to our understanding of fate.

A sense of power is developed within the juggler throughout the poem, suggesting that he has a greater influence on the scene around him than what is described on the surface. …show more content…

The overall idea of fate seems to be a universal theme throughout all religions, and it proves to be a significant plot point within this poem as well. The first stanza is a great example of the relationship between the juggler and his balls. Through concise diction such as “resents its own resilience” and “settles and is forgot,” the speaker personifies the juggling balls, depicting them as living beings with emotions. They resent their own resilience because they lack autonomy; the juggler controls their movement, just as fate determines the path we take. The balls, “roll around, wheel on his wheeling hands,” an image that appears almost as if the balls were each planets in a solar system, suggesting that fate even controls that aspect of being. This, again, hints toward a sense of largeness, a big picture that we continuously work to understand and comprehend. We as humans have used religion as a device to understand what our purpose is; for example, the ‘big man upstairs’ sees all and controls all, just as he controls the planet-like balls. One could safely assume that if these balls were planets, the planet ‘Earth’ would be filled with all of mankind, therefore depicting humans as if they were at the mercy of the juggler as well. The ‘performance’ is simply the human depiction of fate, explaining the overwhelming reaction that the audience gives in reaction to

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