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.
Anecdote of the Jar - context Summary
Published in 1919
Written and published in 1919 and included in Harmonium, this short poem stages a simple scene: a jar placed on a Tennessee hill that seems to impose order on the surrounding wilderness. The jar’s presence changes how the landscape is perceived, claiming "dominion" without offering life. As a concise parable, the poem highlights tensions between human-made objects and natural environments and reflects early modernist preoccupations with perception and artifice.
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