Anecdote of a Jar

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.

Wallace Stevens.

I read this for class. I developed a rather different viewpoint from what my classmates and apparently the rest of the academic world has on the meaning of the poem. My Professor, who is not conceited in his teachings about the fact that poetry only have one interpretation, actually encouraged my viewpoint of it. I'm very grateful for that his interests in it, going so far as to call it ingenious. ^_^ Encouraged by this, I am spamming it in my journal to the world, my look at this poem.

Before I post what I feel when I read it, think about what you believe the author is saying in the poem & stand by your beliefs.

The Anecdote of the Jar, though only a poem composed of a brief 12 lines, has been much debated about its lyrical content and meaning. Each person has attached their own theory to what exactly is Stevens writing about. Among the much debated of its content arise two prominent theories of Stevens’ poem. Patricia Merivale, in her article ‘Wallace Stevens' "Jar": The Absurd Detritus of Romantic Myth’; states that there are mainly ‘two schools of thought on Stevens’ poem’ (Merivale, 527). A positive and a negative theory. The positive theory is that of ‘A modern Grecian urn…Bringing order out of the chaos of the ‘slovenly wilderness’. The negative connotation focuses on the final stanza of the poem: ‘on the clear suggestibility of sterility in “gray and bare” (Merivale, 527). My theory upon it is neither in agreement nor disagreement with both schools of thoughts. My concepts about the poem are in a distinct perspective.

For me, Stevens is writing about life, life in terms of pregnancy, maternal, and paternal attachments, as well as the impact of a child, especially if the child’s life did not reach fruition in the womb. The placing of a jar in Tennessee can refer to the conceiving of a child in a woman. Evidence of this can be seen in the line of where exactly the jar was placed: ‘And round it was, upon a hill’, referencing to the form of pregnancy and how the effect of being pregnant, curves out a woman. The “I” in the first line states who exactly placed that jar, in my case, it would be the father, and his act of inseminating his wife.

The wilderness that was tamed by the jar can be that of the personality changed to the potential mother/father because of that future child. The wilderness might not be related to nature, but more of a wildness, the freedom that couples have, the time that allows the couple to attend parties, dances and the like, before having their life altered by a child.

The appearance of said child never comes to being in the poem, becoming dark with the lines of “the jar was a round upon a ground. My interpretation of this line is that of the child being stillborn or a miscarriage. The line and act of ‘taking dominion everywhere’ can be a description to how the loss of a baby can devastate the parents. The miscarriage/stillborn can be interpretive to the line of the jar being gray and bare. The final two lines can be interpretive to the fact that the womb did not birth a plant, or animal, did not bring life at all. The final line can be seen as how this experience to the “I”, the father,has seen nothing like it before, explaining the uniqueness of losing a child is different to every set of parents.


Merivale, Patricia. 'Wallace Stevens' "Jar": The Absurd Detritus of Romantic Myth'.College English, Vol. 26, No. 7, pp. 527-532.National Council of Teachers of English. April 1965.


--- and that cool cats & kittens is my viewpoint of it. Any proper online etiquette following commentary is welcome.

-Stephanie.

LISTENING TO: My Funny Valentine by Chet Baker