'Juggler' critical practicism

Class: EN2202
Paper: Mid-term essay

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‘Juggler’ by Richard Wilbur is a reflective yet kinaesthetic poem which consists of five sestets, each of which follows an abcbac rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is not regular but it is consistent throughout all 5 stanzas of the poem. This lends the poem a sense of unbroken momentum and fluidity, which ties in neatly with the subject of juggling.

The poem quite starkly illustrates the inevitability of problems and failures in our lives- there is no escaping both the ups and the downs of life hence we should view obstacles as life running its natural course. First and foremost, the poem talks about objects “falling”, “dropping” and “com[ing] down” due to the gravitational pull at the core of the earth. The balls, table, plate and broom can be read as representations of ourselves, as suggested through the personification of the ball in stanza one. “Resents its own resilience” is an ironic statement on its own-resilience is known to be a desirable quality but is resented here. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a setback, or the ground for this matter, but it is not a natural response of a ball to go on bouncing infinitely as “falling is what it loves”. It is inevitable as gravity will always prevail. “The world’s weight”, in this context, takes on two meanings: it can simply be describing gravity, the bane of the ball’s existence, or it can also refer to the problems and issues which burden the world and her inhabitants. We, like the objects, are unable to defy the rules of nature and life every single moment on our own and must accept setbacks as a natural course of life.

The idea of the saying “What goes up must come down” is that all good things must come to an end. The use of alliteration throughout the poem supports this idea. The use of alliteration in the second stanza lends rhythm and momentum to the poem. “Whee”, “wheel” and “wheeling” not only provides the extra bounce to the rhythm of the stanza, it also reflects the inertia and momentum of the juggler’s balls in motion. By the final stanza, however, the emphasis on the hard consonant “d” and the words which start with said alphabet lends the stanza a heavier, more grounded feel and pulls us back down to earth. In the very same sentence-“In the dust again, if the table starts to drop/Through the daily dark again”-it is also evident that the juggler’s gravity-defying act occurs repeatedly, and that the routine is a daily act. This provides an emphasis on the unavoidable nature of falling (throughout the days of our lives), which I will further explore in the next paragraph.

Paradoxically, both the finality of the Law of Conservation of Energy (adhered to by a bouncing ball) and the continuous loop of a ball’s trajectory (when juggled) contribute to the same idea that life is predetermined yet unpredictable and always a cycle which one cannot break out or away from. “A ball will bounce; but less and less” accurately explains how a ball dropped from any height will rebound but eventually come to a stop after subsequent rebounds- it cannot go on bouncing forever. This is because the energy supplied to the ball is transferred out into its surroundings and becomes unavailable for itself. To say that there is finality to success, which will always eventually decline and come to an end, is, perhaps, a rather negative view of life but that is what the opening line of the poem implies. Similarly, the circular, spherical and round motifs throughout the poem reinforce this idea. The ball itself reminds us of the saying “The ball is round” which basically means that anything can happen and nothing is entirely predetermined by divine will. This ties well with the concept of the Rota Fortunae, which posits that the goddess Fortuna spins us around on a wheel at random, hence our ever-changing and unfixed positions- we will sometimes gain windfalls but at other times, inevitably suffer misfortune.

Other than the earth, the wheel, the plate and the drum, the poem itself is a circular motif as it reflects and traces the cyclical and elliptical path of a ball being juggled. Each stanza mirrors a phase of the ball in its cycle. The juggler and his balls are first introduced in the first stanza. Subsequently, the ball gains height, is temporarily frozen mid-air once it reaches its peak right before gravity takes over and pulls it back down to earth and finally, is still and at rest. The poem, along with its many circular motifs, portrays how human life will always come full circle and hence, we cannot escape nor evade the fact that there will be no end to the setbacks we encounter. The juggler is only human and just like him, we get tired too. Instead of resigning to our fate, however, the poem encourages us to celebrate any moment(s) of victory, no matter how transient or temporary.

The juggler’s performance may have come to an end but there is no need to feel sorry- this end is, ironically, not final as he will defy gravity once more the next day and all the days to come. Also, it was magical and captivating while it lasted and the final line of the poem attests to that. The alliteration of the bilabial fricative “w” in “Who has won for once over the world’s weight” lends the poem a weighted, drawn-out, grand and triumphant ending, even after the breathtakingly described illusion has come to an end. The repetitive use of the aspirated consonant “t” in “on his toe the table is turning…plate whirls on the tip of the broom!” gives the fourth stanza a very crisp feel as the pace and rhythm of the sentences are shortened and quickened. The staccato of the alliteration also reflects the breath-holding excitement of the audience. Ultimately, the general mood and atmosphere of the poem is uplifting, triumphant and optimistic, despite the aforementioned undertones of futility and inescapability from fate. The foremost message of ‘Juggler’ is that art can transcend the ordinary, if only for a moment, if only for a while; it is phenomenal and sensational while it lasts! The feeling of exhilaration is portrayed through the use of movement (bouncing, falling, shaking, rolling, wheeling, spinning, reeling, dropping etc.), sounds (crying, shrieking and booming) and vivid colours throughout the poem.
The simplest of motions can be transformed into art-a performance, an act, a moment of magic. Like how the juggler gives height to the objects he uses, the simple act of juggling is elevated in this poem through the use of diction and imagery. The phrases "sky-blue", "in the air" and "heaven" literally heightens the performance and expands the scale of the ball-tossing whereas "spin of worlds" and "sure and noble" gives the performance a dramatic ring of importance and grandeur. Also, the performance is able to "shake our gravity up"-on the one hand the phrase can literally mean gravity is defied and at the same time, the juggler has the ability to eliminate solemnity and downcastedness through his art and skill. The upward motion of a ball is itself an evidence and symbol of mastery and its success in the overcoming of air resistance and gravity. The achievement may seem short-lived and the triumph, brief, but the phrase “small heaven” suggests an unexpected exultation within the momentariness. A vast heaven which is dwarfed in comparison to the juggler’s ears portrays the juggler himself as big, powerful and indestructible, which is what he probably is feeling as he counters a natural force with swift, seemingly simple motions. When the juggler trades his balls for a broom, a plate and a table, he is using more commonplace, unimportant and overlooked household objects in place of the more performance-specific red balls. It is ironic, however, that the trade ups the difficulty of the challenge as the objects are significantly larger and makes the juggler appear even more skilful. This facilitates the idea that the most ordinary of objects, when put into the artist’s hands, can be transformed into tools with higher extrinsic value.

The poem opens with the image of a bouncing ball. As we progress, we notice that the main focus of the poem is, in fact, the juggler and his skills. The ball, and any other commonplace object for that matter, are mere props of the juggler (the artist), tools used in the greater scheme of the artist. The line-breaks (lineation) in each stanza, together with the enjambment between the first two stanzas, mimic the motion of a ball as it passes through one hand of the juggler to the other (before soaring through the air and back down again). There is a momentary pause and break in the flow of the cyclical motion of the ball(s), however slight and fleeting, but it is that break which allows the juggler to recharge and supply the ball with a new wave of energy and inertia to overcome gravity. The juggler gets the applause and ovation because he is the entertainer with the agency (he throws, he transfers and he catches), the artist behind the act, and the manager of the difficult, tedious and unattainable.

Like how the juggler manipulates objects, the poem manipulates its audience into conceptualizing its themes and ideas through the use of stanzaic form, rhyme, lineation and imagery.

(1574 words)