Stevens thought a lot about the importance of imagination in life. Here the speaker performs one odd, imaginative act—he places a jar on a hilltop. The man-made jar sticks out from the natural scene surrounding it, commanding our attention and becoming a focal point in the landscape. The speaker’s gesture is an example of how we create human order in the world. How does the jar affect the landscape around it? Does the poem suggest that this is a good or a bad thing? How?
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 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.
Glossary
slovenly: untidy
dominion: sovereignty, ownership (rule)
give of: produce, bring forth (bear)
of a port: This unusual phrase has at least two possible meanings:
1) A “port” can be an opening or portal (doorway). “Of a port in air” may therefore suggest a sort of mysterious entryway.
2) A “port” can also be a person’s “bearing” or way of carrying themselves. “Of a port” may therefore suggest the jar’s impressive presence
Wallace Stevens, "Anecdote of the Jar" from Harmonium. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Public domain.)