Anecdote of the Jar
By Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
Wallace was a very successful lawyer and he had a business writing style when it came to his poems. He did not receive recognition for his poetry work from the literary community until a year before his death in 1954.
Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens
Anecdote of the Jar
I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
Interpretation
I believe that this poem is very interesting because it truly shows how you being in a place makes that place not the same as it was before. Anecdote of the Jar truly shows your effect on the surrounds and how you other people can change your life and you can change theirs. The jar in essence represents anything and anyone and how they can change their surroundings.