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Post by nayaj0nes on Aug 14, 2017 15:00:27 GMT -6
To me the Juggler is an unusual poem because it uses a variety of lyrical elements to elevate a common form of entertainment. On the surface the poem looks to be an acclaim to physical agility because it is about a man that is literally juggling a ball. However, the author brings in elements such as space, life and another world that is heaven. In the first stanza, the juggler talks about the motion of the ball. The ball is to “bounce” but “less and less” each time it bounces. To me this could represent the term of life and how a person gets older and older which would cause the person to lose their “bounce”. To add on, the poem then goes to say that the ball resents its “resilience”. Which could mean that the ball does not want to consistently go up and down, but instead it want to continuously go up because it is tired of going down. However, at the end of the stanza the author mentions “5 red balls”. This confuses me because it has virtually nothing to do with the rest of the stanza.
The first stanza talks about how the more familiar one is with the world or any activity for that matter, the more less special it seems. The juggler is so familiar with juggling his red balls that he wants to try something different because it brings him no excitement any longer.
The rest of the poem mentions a heaven and I believe this is to have a spiritual connotation because with the ball being tired of bouncing up and down, a heaven would be it not bouncing at all. For the juggler though, a heaven would be trading his “ball” in for something more extravagant that would probably make him more wealthier. The third stanza claims that the juggler wants to trade the ball in for a broom, a plate and a table, a more complicated task.
Throughout the poem the juggler wants to defy gravity. His wearing of sky blue represents him feeling free and his total dream of defying gravity which would explain the connection to heaven because he wants to defy the weight of the world. The juggler wants to feel free of juggling balls and he wants to move forward in life with something completely different.
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Post by jordan on Aug 14, 2017 19:26:00 GMT -6
I agree with what most of your points because looking back at the poem, what you said makes sense. The author continues this theme of galaxy and supernatural. After reading the poem again, I think the "5 red balls" could represent something more complicated or challenging. Maybe the ball represents a job or a task in life, which is easy to handle. Then life, or the supernatural, throws 5 red curve balls which can be anything. Now the juggler has a harder time managing 5 balls. Eventually, it becomes boring again, so the juggler would exchange the balls for a broom, plate, and table because it provides a new challenge.
Looking at the 5 red balls as their own being, once they stop bouncing (or moving) they die because they "settle" and are "forgotten."
I think the juggler represents every average person, who wants to stay useful or relevant in society. People don't want to settle and be forgotten.
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mari
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Post by mari on Aug 16, 2017 20:26:46 GMT -6
Reading This poem I focused specifically on the relationship of the what the juggler and and the ball and what was it's meaning behind it. I thought about what a juggler was. A juggler is a fool who works to entertain either an audience or a king. I thought of the balls as jobs or tasks a person is given in everyday life. As Jordan says, eventually the juggling task gets more and more difficult as the juggler realizes that the audience is no longer entertained. The line " The ball bounces but less and less," I took that more as the lack of motivation rather than death. People are mainly pushed to be better than what they can be and in order to do that, people must challenge themselves, however too much of a challenge can be overwhelming and slow down a persons motivation. Eventually the motivation will come back, thus how I interpreted the use of the balls "resilience".
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Post by Keviana S on Aug 17, 2017 2:47:12 GMT -6
After reading this poem for the fifth time, I concluded that the central idea is that the Jugglers whole process for juggling these balls represents how we juggle the obstacles while on Earth. As Mari says, "A Juggler is a fool who works to entertain either and audience or a king." I thought about what the meaning of resilience is in the first stanza to connect it with the Juggler's whole juggling process. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. I believe that the juggler tries to balance and keep everything steady with the five red balls by recovering quickly from everyday life challenges. With the challenges we face throughout the relationships we make, it's hard for us to balance all the other things that are going on in our lives. Sometimes these things damage us to the point where we can't balance everything, because it will eventually come crashing down. The juggler can't forever balance a ball, because eventually he will get tired and completely give up. We eventually give up on balancing out the things in our life, by lettig things go, Or we sometimes find ourselves in situation where as we are completely running from our obstacles. Once we have completely landed we come to realize the whole part of this process was for us to eventually fall.
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Post by Andrea on Aug 17, 2017 5:52:59 GMT -6
This poem was very confusing for me because I couldn't see beyond there being a juggler and I couldn't see how the juggler could possibly represent something else. However, after reading everyone's observations, as well as re reading the poem, I see how everyone else see's some of the language used as representing space or the planets. Overall, I'm starting to think that the juggler represents man and the balls he's juggling are meant to represent the problems that man has to face while on earth, like Keviana said. I also kinda understand what Naya was saying in class a few days ago, about the balls being in a never ending cycle of bouncing up and down, so even thought they know that they're going to bounce up, they know eventually that they're going to hit the ground again, which is why the poem seems so negative, but that idea is still a little confusing to me.
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Post by akmaples on Aug 17, 2017 9:58:43 GMT -6
The poem, "The Juggler”, by Richard Wilbur was to me, about a boy - juggler, that is trying juggle his life and classes - courses. This poem reminded me of a boy trying to juggle his life, because in stanza two, it states, “Cling to their courses there.” It reminded me of someone trying to grab on to their life and make sure they participated in their courses without failure. In stanza one, where it says, “so in our hearts from brilliance, settles and is forgot. It takes a sky-blue juggler with five red balls.” This stanza reminded me of when you’re taking a class at school and you have to constantly review the material or else it will be forgotten. Then in stanza three it states, “The spin of the worlds, with a gesture sure and noble he reels that heaven in, landing it ball by ball, and trades it all for a broom, a plate, a table. This stanza reminds me of a student going to school everyday and once they graduate they get a job and they use the knowledge or the ball. They then trade the ball in for a broom, plate, or table. These are in other words, materialistic items that people spend money on that they get from working everyday. And that happens because they have gone to school everyday and have kept their “ball” running.
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taj
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Post by taj on Aug 17, 2017 15:35:50 GMT -6
The Juggler by Richard Wilbur perhaps is a display of the responsibilities of one's life. The metaphor of juggling the balls is meant to portray balance: both of one's inner philosophies and their morals. The balls represent the different aspects of our personalities and their resentment of their own resilience is representative of how it is human nature to doubt. When we fall or fail in our endeavors the natural response would be a sense of doubt in our abilities. This of course makes Wilbur seem like a bit of a pessimist, however notice that the juggler is being cheered for by the crowd. The juggler is also the only character to receive a semi-name. The boy and the girl are very ambiguous in description. This leads me to believe that we are not supposed to place ourselves within the juggler's shoes but rather of the boys or the girls. Wilbur may be commenting on our praise of those with talent. Those who seem to be easily handling whatever they are doing. From our viewpoint, however, we can see that the juggler - or rather the balls hate to bounce back up. In other words, they hate their very nature or an aspect of their nature. This may be indicative of the lengths we go to in order to receive the "battering of our hands" and to "win ober the world's weight".
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kevin
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Post by kevin on Aug 17, 2017 15:52:07 GMT -6
yeah, like Andrea said I couldn't really see past the juggler. I think that this is mostly because I don't really read a lot of poetry. however, I do agree with Keviana that the balls and their "resilience" represent how people encounter problems throughout life and how we deal with them. The part where the juggler trades out his balls for a “broom, a plate, a table” also shows how we have to balance the different aspects of your lives. I say this mostly because I think of the balls in the poem as the issues or problems we deal with since like the balls we have to bounce back from them, but the balancing of the broom, plate, and table, to me, represent the different responsibilities we have to keep up with. When the author says “but a heaven is easier made of nothing at all” i feel that he is trying to say that even if crumble under the pressure we have then we take the easy way out, because it may be easier to do something one way but not as beneficial, kinda like how it may be easier to not do your work but it is more beneficial if you do.
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Post by nikymbaw on Aug 17, 2017 16:03:17 GMT -6
Similar to Jordan and Naya, I feel like the juggler is someone who is trying to kept up with the world around him. Him juggling the "5 red balls" gives a celestial feel, like it's remarking on the inner mechanisms that keeps the juggler himself running. A juggler is suppose to entertain people, of all ages, but after seeing the same performance over and over again then you grow tire of it. When the juggler turns to trade in the balls for a broom, a plate, and a table, I was like he was trying revive himself, and the live he chose to lead. The last few lines are probably the most puzzling line for me, and is what made me agree with Taj and the idea that we the reader are in the perspective of the "boys and girls" in the audience. The phrase "For him we batter our hands, Who has won for once over the world's weight" makes me believe that the juggler is in fact someone with talent, and the onlookers are urging him on, putting him on a pedestal. It's probably why the juggler appears so tired after his performance, he never truly gets to take a break, and constantly has to "freshen" his performance to make sure he stays relevant. We as the "audience" and readers are the ones urging him on, making him continue this routine that he more or less hates.
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