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" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, Harmonium. Wallace Stevens is an important figure in 20th century American poetry. The poem was first published in 1919, it is in the public domain.^[1] Wallace Stevens wrote the poem in 1918 when he was in the town of Elizabethton, Tennessee. ^{[citation needed]}

^ Buttel, p. 166. See also Librivox [1] Archived 2010-10-13 at the Wayback Machine and the Poetry web site.[2]

[1] Buttel, p. 166. See also Librivox [1] Archived 2010-10-13 at the Wayback Machine and the Poetry web site.[2]

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