Anecdote of the Jar

by Wallace Stevens
   
I placed a jar in Tennessee,  
And round it was upon a hill.  
It made the slovenly wilderness  
Surround that hill.  
   
The wildernss rose up to it  5
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. 10
It did not give of bird or bush,  
Like nothing else in Tennessee.  
   

 
jar — Some believe the poem was inspired by this jar, which was widely available at the time (1919).