Anecdote of the Jar

Wallace Stevens: Anecdote of the Jar

Harmonium (1923)

I placed a jar in Tennessee,And round it was, upon a hill.It made the slovenly wildernessSurround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,And sprawled around, no longer wild.The jar was round upon the groundAnd tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion every where.The jar was gray and bare.It did not give of bird or bush,Like nothing else in Tennessee.

“Anecdote of the Jar” From Harmonium (1923)