Jared Gullage
MARP
0th Period
May 1, 2013
To Paper Without Comments
A MARP ABOUT WALLACE STEVENS
By Jared Gullage
INTRODUCTION
The poetry of Wallace Stevens is, at first glance, rather hard to decipher. Stevens’s style
is not usual or traditional. His choice of symbols throughout his poetry could be considered offputting to someone reading his poetry for the first time; therefore his poetry might seem to have
little to no meaning at all. However, a deeper examination of his poetry reveals that Wallace
Stevens uses common ordinary things, which many people encounter in their daily lives, to
represent a deeper meaning to his audience. He forces his audience to seek out meaning, though,
never revealing it easily or in a straightforward manner. In his poem “The Anecdote of the Jar,”
Wallace Stevens uses ordinary everyday objects and places to encourage his readers to seek out
and understand a deeper meaning or theme about his views of humanity.
SECTION 1: The Jar
The poem, “Anecdote of the Jar,” has a rather simplistic plot. Some unnamed persona
wanders out in the woods of Tennessee, puts a jar down on the ground, and simply watches it for
a moment. The persona, whoever it is, could theoretically be anyone at all, and Stevens probably
deliberately forgoes telling us anything about this person except that we, the readers are
supposed to be inside the persona’s mind: “I placed a jar in Tennessee” (Stevens 1). He
emphasizes only that the persona is in first-person, using the word “I.” This suggests that the
persona could be “me” or “we the readers.” I think that Wallace Stevens does this intentionally,
to draw the reader into the poem. By saying “I,” perhaps he makes the reader ask the question:
Gullage 1
“does Wallace mean himself, or does he actually want us to think it is us doing the placing of the
jar?” Either way, most likely as the reader reads the poem, he or she wonders why the persona
of the poem set the jar in Tennessee. Further questions arise from this first one, such as: “Why
Tennessee?” and “Why a jar?” and “Why is this important?”
By asking these questions, the reader is already succumbing to Stevens’s trap directed at
him, allowing himself to be implicated in the poem’s meaning. The reader wonders “what is the
deeper meaning behind this seemingly meaningless event?” Stevens plays on people’s natural
desire for meaning in the seemingly chaotic. Before digging deeper into the poem, one must
accept a great possibility: that Wallace Stevens meant absolutely nothing at all by the poem, and
that he was trying to reflect the meaningless of life in describing such a simple and pointless
event. “But if the passages in question are odd neither as the words of a comfortably settled
middle-class executive nor as those of a modern poet, is there any basis for thinking them
relevant to the malaise of the posthistorical?” (Mao). As a critic of poetry, one must always keep
that assumption about art in the back of the mind; however, one must also proceed under the
notion that, without meaning, is there any reason to assume significance or worthiness of study?
Likely, the jar itself is a metaphor for something deeper. By examining the jar and its
features, one can start to piece together a possible, albeit not exclusive, assumption about what
Wallace Stevens might have been trying to say in the poem. What is a jar? A jar is a small,
glass container for storing and preserving food and other goods. Who makes a jar? Human
beings make jars. The “jar” in the poem is said to be “round upon the ground” and “tall and of a
port in air” (Stevens 7-8). So, Stevens suggests that this jar seems to be important, perhaps? But
why? The jar must represent some important meaning, and it would be one safe assumption that
the jar, by dent of it being a created thing, represents, at least in some way, its creator: humanity.
Gullage 2
The persona of the poem says as soon as the jar was placed on the ground:
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
(Stevens 3-6)
For Stevens, the act of placing the jar on the ground is an act of taming the wilderness. When the
jar is placed, the wilderness seems to surround it. This suggests that the jar becomes a symbol
for mankind taming the wilderness that surrounds him. As soon as a human survives in the wild,
the place he is in is no longer to be considered wild. Man has manipulated his environment,
changing it from what nature made it into something he has crafted for himself. The jar, because
humans created it, is not really beneficial to nature, but instead serves the interests of the man
who placed it there in Tennessee. “Its presence organizes the apparently chaotic world around it.
Throughout the poem, the narrator contrasts the disorganized fecundity of nature with the sterile
organization of the manmade object” (Barnhisel). This author suggests that the jar represents a
“sterile organization,” in the poem, which says: “The jar was gray and bare. / It did not give of
bird or bush,” (Stevens 10-11).
Though the jar, itself, is an act of organization and control, it does not give anything
back. Though mankind tames nature, nature is not made better by the act of being tamed. In
fact, nature, represented here by “bird and bush” (ibid), gets nothing from the jar but an obstacle.
So, the jar might suggest to the reader that we, as human beings, have become separate from
nature, have been forced to permanently be excluded from the proverbial “Garden of Eden,”
never to return. Yes, we can experience nature, and can view it, and interact with it, but we can
no longer be considered, from Stevens’s possible view, to be a part of it and co-exist with it.
Gullage 3
One question that arises from this poem, for me the reader, is: why not use some other
object to symbolize man’s disconnection with nature? Why not a gun? Why not a battle ax?
Why not a candy wrapper? Why not chemical waste? The jar is a peculiar object to represent
humanity, except when one considers the idea that a jar can be a container of anything, whatever
is put inside of it. Good can be put in a jar. Water or soil might be in the jar, so animals could
drink from it or plants grow in it, but Stevens tells us in the poem that it has nothing in it. It is
bare. By describing the jar as specifically bare and useless to nature, Stevens suggests humans
typically do not offer anything back to nature. We are empty vessels, filled with nothing useful
to nature. We tame the world, and leave it empty and wanting.
Perhaps Stevens picked a jar because a jar is neutral, and could potentially represent any
human being. A gun or other weapon would only represent the people who use them, and not
necessarily everyone. Toxic waste would only represent those who pollute with it, and not those
who fight against that pollution. A jar, however, is an item almost anyone can and will use in
life; therefore, it is a symbol for any human being.
SECTION 2: Tennessee
Stevens mentions that the poem is set in Tennessee, an allusion to a particular state in the
United States (Stevens 1, 12). Why does he pick Tennessee, though? Would the poem mean the
same if it were set in Mississippi, or Alabama, or China? What is the significance of Tennessee?
The name of Tennessee comes from the Cherokee word for the river flowing through the area:
the Tanasi. It was also the name of a nearby village of Cherokee people (Tennessee). Tennessee
is also considered part of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Theoretically, this might suggest a
deeper meaning as to why Wallace Stevens chose this particular area to set his poem.
Gullage 4
It is unknown to this author at time of writing this essay whether or not Wallace Stevens
did any major research about Tennessee before writing the poem, and it is unknown whether or
not he specifically chose the region for any particular aspect it possesses. Maybe it just fit his
rhythm neatly. It is my belief, however, that there are specific aspects about the region that
might have caused Stevens to work it into his poem, or which may influence the interpretation of
the poem’s meaning.
Stevens seems to fixate on mountains. He has a hill mentioned that, if it is in Tennessee,
would be in or near the Appalachian Mountains. He mentions mountains in “The Poem that
Took the Place of a Mountain” as well, where he seems to suggest that poetry can contain a
mountain within itself, or even replace the experience of visiting one:
There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.
He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.
It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,
How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds
(Stevens 1-8)
This poem suggests that mountains are a sort of “utmost of nature” that can be contained within
words, so much so, that a reader can “breath its oxygen” (3) and “recomposed the pines” (7-8).
Mountains are some, if not the, biggest naturally-made structures on our planet. Some
mountains cannot even be climbed by man. Some contain volcanoes, which are more powerful
than mankind may ever be, and certainly more than man was at the time the poem was written.
Yet, in that poem, Stevens suggests we can recreate or replace mountains with words about
them; therefore we conquer them by knowing them and what they are and imagining them. We
Gullage 5
conquer them by naming them and holding them within a sphere of ideas. Perhaps Stevens is
suggesting, therefore, in “The Anecdote of the Jar” that, by scaling the mountain in Tennessee
and placing a jar on top of it, mankind has conquered and tamed a mountain. Here is one last
bastion of nature’s absolute grandeur and power over humanity brought below humanity’s
influence.
The ironic part of this, of course, is the tool with which our persona conquers this
mountain. Exactly what he places at the pinnacle of nature is a simple jar. One might imagine a
mason jar once used for fruit preserves. Perhaps this symbolic jar humiliates nature to tame it by
being on top of the highest places, but it is also a humble symbol, as humanity represents itself
with what would eventually be called a piece of trash that “did not give of bird of bush” (ibid).
Stevens may suggest that mankind’s achievement to conquer nature only amounts to trash or
refuse. Mankind’s greatest achievement, therefore, is merely to pollute our planet.
Perhaps Stevens chose Tennessee because of Tennessee history and the way mankind
has acted in this region during the history of this nation. If the word tanasi is a Cherokee word,
based on the name of one of their villages, then it would stand to reason that the Cherokee were
the original inhabitants of the region. However, they were removed to Oklahoma reservations on
the “Trail of Tears” in the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (Davidson). If Stevens knew about the
history of the region, then perhaps this is why he chose it. Long ago, another set of men walked
in those mountains and claimed to have tamed it. But other humans tamed these and sent them
away. The Native Americans living in the region could have two possible symbolic meanings: a
time when man was closer to nature and more a part of it, or a time when humanity destroyed
that part of itself that was closer to nature (assuming of course that Stevens was playing on the
stereotype of Native Americans being spiritually connected to nature).
Gullage 6
It is not completely certain that Stevens thought this much about the region, or what
side of this issue he was on because “[i]n short, Stevens's politics remain open to debate because
he never gave them full, unequivocal, and public articulation. This reticence has itself been read
as politically significant” (Lucas), but it could have something to do with why he chose it
regardless of the Native American angle being involved at all.
At the very least, he chose Tennessee because he thought that part of that region was
somehow still wild and untamed, until the jar was placed there. Now, because man has intruded
there, the place is no longer wild: “Its presence organizes the apparently chaotic world around it”
(Barnhisel). Stevens suggests, through evoking and alluding to Tennessee that humanity is
putting order on the chaotic, essentially humanizing nature.
In fact, the very act of naming the place at all imposes a sort of structure on the region.
All of the supposedly wild region is contained within the bounds of a named environment called
“Tennessee.” By naming it, Stevens is suggesting that it is already losing part of its wildness and
mystery. Perhaps, therefore, Tennessee represents Stevens’s belief that humanity attempts to
tame the world around itself by naming things and therefore conquering them.
SECTION 3: Structure of the Poem
While the poem does not follow all conventions associated with traditional American/English
poetry (which might include having iambic pentameter rhythm and a stable rhyme scheme), the poem
does use iambic meter and rhymes some words here and there. The poem uses neither rhyme nor rhythm
in a stable pattern throughout the poem. Though the poem is iambic, and while most of the lines are
written in iambic tetrameter with the exception of line 4, the poem still breaks away from any stability of
pattern or structure.
Therefore, one can ascertain the possibility that Wallace Stevens uses structure to add meaning to
the poem. Overall, the poem does follow a pattern. It is iambic tetrameter in eleven out of twelve lines
Gullage 7
and still iambic in the line that’s not tetrameter. The act of placing the jar, as has been previously stated,
is an act of taming, of controlling, the wilderness. The jar itself contains, and controls, that which is
inside of it. Its shape and solidity controls those things that encounter it. An animal would have to step
around it to avoid stepping on it. A plant would have to grow around it, and could not gain anything from
it. Even a plant that grows inside of it will eventually die if it is not capable of breaking out of the jar
within which it is contained. The jar suggests structure.
Likewise, a stable rhythm throughout the poem suggests intent and structure, ideas that
are alien to wild nature and an almost innate part of human nature: “Stevens, in this poem, has
arrived at the conclusion that human imagination does not create the world, but rather creates the
order that is in the world and imposes that order on nature” (Barnhisel). Stevens describes nature,
a usually chaotic and uncontrolled thing by its very definition, in a controlled and organized way.
In this fashion, the incident where he describes placing the jar is, in itself, an attempt to control
nature, not only in the act, but in the poem describing the act. He says that nature reacts to the
jar, as though worshiping it: “it [the jar] took dominion every where” (Stevens 9).
The structure of the poem suggests a struggle between nature’s tendency towards chaos
and humanity’s tendency towards order, and the structure wins the most of the poem. Only one
line violates the structure in any way. The structure of the poem suggests that Stevens was
saying that even in the simplest of events, the moment when the jar is placed, humanity will seek
a structured language to describe the event and understand it. The structure puts the reader in the
place of reader, and the nature of language and the fact the poem is written demands that those
who encounter it are readers, just as someone who encounters the jar must walk the same path as
the one who placed it. Stevens, therefore, is demanding we, the readers, ‘follow’ his thoughts
and live within the structured universe he has created for us, encountering this jar he places from
Gullage 8
the necessary perspective of adherent to order and structure. The poem is not itself unless in the
structure that Stevens provides and writes in.
CONCLUSION
Wallace Stevens’ poetry suggests much about the nature of humanity. He suggests that humanity
is bound by a desire for structure and order, and that we will impose this order on nature when it suits our
purposes. He suggests we have been separated from nature, and that we are not better than nature or in a
position to give nature anything back. The poem, “The Anecdote of the Jar” is a poem with a great deal
of meaning and symbolism buried beneath its simplistic plot. It shows that even an act as simple and
straightforward as placing a jar in the wilderness is a very deep, and meaningful, event.
WORKS CITED
Barnhisel, Greg. "Critical Essay on 'The Idea of Order at Key West'." Poetry for Students. Ed.
Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resource Center.
Web. 5 Apr. 2012.
Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff, Nation of Nations: A narrative History of the
American Republic, Volume 1, McGraw-Hill Companies. New York, NY. 2001. pgs.
341Lucas, James. "Fiction, Politics, and Chocolate Whipped Cream: Wallace Stevens's 'Forces, the
Will, and the Weather.'." ELH 68 (2001): 745-761. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 110.
Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.
Mao, Douglas. "Wallace Stevens for the Millennium: The Spectacle of Enjoyment." Southwest
Review 85.1 (2000): 10-33. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 110. Detroit: Gale, 2010.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.
Stevens, Wallace. “Anecdote of the Jar.” Prentice Hall Literature. Boston: Pearson, 2008.
795. Print.
“Tennessee State Name Origin.” State Symbols USA. Tennessee Department of Education. N.d. Web. 5
April 2012.
Gullage 9
Jared Gullage
MARP
0th Period
May 1, 2013
A MARP ABOUT WALLACE STEVENS
By Jared Gullage
INTRODUCTION
The poetry of Wallace Stevens is, at first glance, rather hard to decipher. Stevens’s style
is not usual or traditional. His choice of symbols throughout his poetry could be considered offputting to someone reading his poetry for the first time; therefore his poetry might seem to have
little to no meaning at all. However, a deeper examination of his poetry reveals that Wallace
Stevens uses common ordinary things, which many people encounter in their daily lives, to
represent a deeper meaning to his audience. He forces his audience to seek out meaning, though,
never revealing it easily or in a straightforward manner. In his poem “The Anecdote of the Jar,”
Wallace Stevens uses ordinary everyday objects and places to encourage his readers to seek out
and understand a deeper meaning or theme about his views of humanity.
SECTION 1: The Jar
The poem, “Anecdote of the Jar,” has a rather simplistic plot. Some unnamed persona
wanders out in the woods of Tennessee, puts a jar down on the ground, and simply watches it for
a moment. The persona, whoever it is, could theoretically be anyone at all, and Stevens probably
deliberately forgoes telling us anything about this person except that we, the readers are
supposed to be inside the persona’s mind: “I placed a jar in Tennessee” (Stevens 1). He
emphasizes only that the persona is in first-person, using the word “I.” This suggests that the
persona could be “me” or “we the readers.” I think that Wallace Stevens does this intentionally,
to draw the reader into the poem. By saying “I,” perhaps he makes the reader ask the question:
Gullage 10
“does Wallace mean himself, or does he actually want us to think it is us doing the placing of the
jar?” Either way, most likely as the reader reads the poem, he or she wonders why the persona
of the poem set the jar in Tennessee. Further questions arise from this first one, such as: “Why
Tennessee?” and “Why a jar?” and “Why is this important?”
By asking these questions, the reader is already succumbing to Stevens’s trap directed at
him, allowing himself to be implicated in the poem’s meaning. The reader wonders “what is the
deeper meaning behind this seemingly meaningless event?” Stevens plays on people’s natural
desire for meaning in the seemingly chaotic. Before digging deeper into the poem, one must
accept a great possibility: that Wallace Stevens meant absolutely nothing at all by the poem, and
that he was trying to reflect the meaningless of life in describing such a simple and pointless
event. “But if the passages in question are odd neither as the words of a comfortably settled
middle-class executive nor as those of a modern poet, is there any basis for thinking them
relevant to the malaise of the posthistorical?” (Mao). As a critic of poetry, one must always keep
that assumption about art in the back of the mind; however, one must also proceed under the
notion that, without meaning, is there any reason to assume significance or worthiness of study?
Likely, the jar itself is a metaphor for something deeper. By examining the jar and its
features, one can start to piece together a possible, albeit not exclusive, assumption about what
Wallace Stevens might have been trying to say in the poem. What is a jar? A jar is a small,
glass container for storing and preserving food and other goods. Who makes a jar? Human
beings make jars. The “jar” in the poem is said to be “round upon the ground” and “tall and of a
port in air” (Stevens 7-8). So, Stevens suggests that this jar seems to be important, perhaps? But
why? The jar must represent some important meaning, and it would be one safe assumption that
the jar, by dent of it being a created thing, represents, at least in some way, its creator: humanity.
Gullage 11
The persona of the poem says as soon as the jar was placed on the ground:
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
(Stevens 3-6)
For Stevens, the act of placing the jar on the ground is an act of taming the wilderness. When the
jar is placed, the wilderness seems to surround it. This suggests that the jar becomes a symbol
for mankind taming the wilderness that surrounds him. As soon as a human survives in the wild,
the place he is in is no longer to be considered wild. Man has manipulated his environment,
changing it from what nature made it into something he has crafted for himself. The jar, because
humans created it, is not really beneficial to nature, but instead serves the interests of the man
who placed it there in Tennessee. “Its presence organizes the apparently chaotic world around it.
Throughout the poem, the narrator contrasts the disorganized fecundity of nature with the sterile
organization of the manmade object” (Barnhisel). This author suggests that the jar represents a
“sterile organization,” in the poem, which says: “The jar was gray and bare. / It did not give of
bird or bush,” (Stevens 10-11).
Though the jar, itself, is an act of organization and control, it does not give anything
back. Though mankind tames nature, nature is not made better by the act of being tamed. In
fact, nature, represented here by “bird and bush” (ibid), gets nothing from the jar but an obstacle.
So, the jar might suggest to the reader that we, as human beings, have become separate from
nature, have been forced to permanently be excluded from the proverbial “Garden of Eden,”
never to return. Yes, we can experience nature, and can view it, and interact with it, but we can
no longer be considered, from Stevens’s possible view, to be a part of it and co-exist with it.
Gullage 12
One question that arises from this poem, for me the reader, is: why not use some other
object to symbolize man’s disconnection with nature? Why not a gun? Why not a battle ax?
Why not a candy wrapper? Why not chemical waste? The jar is a peculiar object to represent
humanity, except when one considers the idea that a jar can be a container of anything, whatever
is put inside of it. Good can be put in a jar. Water or soil might be in the jar, so animals could
drink from it or plants grow in it, but Stevens tells us in the poem that it has nothing in it. It is
bare. By describing the jar as specifically bare and useless to nature, Stevens suggests humans
typically do not offer anything back to nature. We are empty vessels, filled with nothing useful
to nature. We tame the world, and leave it empty and wanting.
Perhaps Stevens picked a jar because a jar is neutral, and could potentially represent any
human being. A gun or other weapon would only represent the people who use them, and not
necessarily everyone. Toxic waste would only represent those who pollute with it, and not those
who fight against that pollution. A jar, however, is an item almost anyone can and will use in
life; therefore, it is a symbol for any human being.
SECTION 2: Tennessee
Stevens mentions that the poem is set in Tennessee, an allusion to a particular state in the
United States (Stevens 1, 12). Why does he pick Tennessee, though? Would the poem mean the
same if it were set in Mississippi, or Alabama, or China? What is the significance of Tennessee?
The name of Tennessee comes from the Cherokee word for the river flowing through the area:
the Tanasi. It was also the name of a nearby village of Cherokee people (Tennessee). Tennessee
is also considered part of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Theoretically, this might suggest a
deeper meaning as to why Wallace Stevens chose this particular area to set his poem.
Gullage 13
It is unknown to this author at time of writing this essay whether or not Wallace Stevens
did any major research about Tennessee before writing the poem, and it is unknown whether or
not he specifically chose the region for any particular aspect it possesses. Maybe it just fit his
rhythm neatly. It is my belief, however, that there are specific aspects about the region that
might have caused Stevens to work it into his poem, or which may influence the interpretation of
the poem’s meaning.
Stevens seems to fixate on mountains. He has a hill mentioned that, if it is in Tennessee,
would be in or near the Appalachian Mountains. He mentions mountains in “The Poem that
Took the Place of a Mountain” as well, where he seems to suggest that poetry can contain a
mountain within itself, or even replace the experience of visiting one:
There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.
He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.
It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,
How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds
(Stevens 1-8)
This poem suggests that mountains are a sort of “utmost of nature” that can be contained within
words, so much so, that a reader can “breath its oxygen” (3) and “recomposed the pines” (7-8).
Mountains are some, if not the, biggest naturally-made structures on our planet. Some
mountains cannot even be climbed by man. Some contain volcanoes, which are more powerful
than mankind may ever be, and certainly more than man was at the time the poem was written.
Yet, in that poem, Stevens suggests we can recreate or replace mountains with words about
them; therefore we conquer them by knowing them and what they are and imagining them. We
Gullage 14
conquer them by naming them and holding them within a sphere of ideas. Perhaps Stevens is
suggesting, therefore, in “The Anecdote of the Jar” that, by scaling the mountain in Tennessee
and placing a jar on top of it, mankind has conquered and tamed a mountain. Here is one last
bastion of nature’s absolute grandeur and power over humanity brought below humanity’s
influence.
The ironic part of this, of course, is the tool with which our persona conquers this
mountain. Exactly what he places at the pinnacle of nature is a simple jar. One might imagine a
mason jar once used for fruit preserves. Perhaps this symbolic jar humiliates nature to tame it by
being on top of the highest places, but it is also a humble symbol, as humanity represents itself
with what would eventually be called a piece of trash that “did not give of bird of bush” (ibid).
Stevens may suggest that mankind’s achievement to conquer nature only amounts to trash or
refuse. Mankind’s greatest achievement, therefore, is merely to pollute our planet.
Perhaps Stevens chose Tennessee because of Tennessee history and the way mankind
has acted in this region during the history of this nation. If the word tanasi is a Cherokee word,
based on the name of one of their villages, then it would stand to reason that the Cherokee were
the original inhabitants of the region. However, they were removed to Oklahoma reservations on
the “Trail of Tears” in the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (Davidson). If Stevens knew about the
history of the region, then perhaps this is why he chose it. Long ago, another set of men walked
in those mountains and claimed to have tamed it. But other humans tamed these and sent them
away. The Native Americans living in the region could have two possible symbolic meanings: a
time when man was closer to nature and more a part of it, or a time when humanity destroyed
that part of itself that was closer to nature (assuming of course that Stevens was playing on the
stereotype of Native Americans being spiritually connected to nature).
Gullage 15
It is not completely certain that Stevens thought this much about the region, or what
side of this issue he was on because “[i]n short, Stevens's politics remain open to debate because
he never gave them full, unequivocal, and public articulation. This reticence has itself been read
as politically significant” (Lucas), but it could have something to do with why he chose it
regardless of the Native American angle being involved at all.
At the very least, he chose Tennessee because he thought that part of that region was
somehow still wild and untamed, until the jar was placed there. Now, because man has intruded
there, the place is no longer wild: “Its presence organizes the apparently chaotic world around it”
(Barnhisel). Stevens suggests, through evoking and alluding to Tennessee that humanity is
putting order on the chaotic, essentially humanizing nature.
In fact, the very act of naming the place at all imposes a sort of structure on the region.
All of the supposedly wild region is contained within the bounds of a named environment called
“Tennessee.” By naming it, Stevens is suggesting that it is already losing part of its wildness and
mystery.
SECTION 3: Structure of the Poem
While the poem does not follow all conventions associated with traditional American/English
poetry (which might include having iambic pentameter rhythm and a stable rhyme scheme), the poem
does use iambic meter and rhymes some words here and there. The poem uses neither rhyme nor rhythm
in a stable pattern throughout the poem. Though the poem is iambic, and while most of the lines are
written in iambic tetrameter with the exception of line 4, the poem still breaks away from any stability of
pattern or structure.
Therefore, one can ascertain the possibility that Wallace Stevens uses structure to add meaning to
the poem. Overall, the poem does follow a pattern. It is iambic tetrameter in eleven out of twelve lines
and still iambic in the line that’s not tetrameter. The act of placing the jar, as has been previously stated,
Gullage 16
is an act of taming, of controlling, the wilderness. The jar itself contains, and controls, that which is
inside of it. Its shape and solidity controls those things that encounter it. An animal would have to step
around it to avoid stepping on it. A plant would have to grow around it, and could not gain anything from
it. Even a plant that grows inside of it will eventually die if it is not capable of breaking out of the jar
within which it is contained. The jar suggests structure.
Likewise, a stable rhythm throughout the poem suggests intent and structure, ideas that
are alien to wild nature and an almost innate part of human nature: “Stevens, in this poem, has
arrived at the conclusion that human imagination does not create the world, but rather creates the
order that is in the world and imposes that order on nature” (Barnhisel). Stevens describes nature,
a usually chaotic and uncontrolled thing by its very definition, in a controlled and organized way.
In this fashion, the incident where he describes placing the jar is, in itself, an attempt to control
nature, not only in the act, but in the poem describing the act. He says that nature reacts to the
jar, as though worshiping it: “it took dominion every where” (Stevens 9).
The structure of the poem suggests a struggle between nature’s tendency towards chaos
and humanity’s tendency towards order, and the structure wins the most of the poem. Only one
line violates the structure in any way. The structure of the poem suggests that Stevens was
saying that even in the simplest of events, the moment when the jar is placed, humanity will seek
a structured language to describe the event and understand it. The structure puts the reader in the
place of reader, and the nature of language and the fact the poem is written demands that those
who encounter it are readers, just as someone who encounters the jar must walk the same path as
the one who placed it. Stevens, therefore, is demanding we, the readers, ‘follow’ his thoughts
and live within the structured universe he has created for us, encountering this jar he places from
the necessary perspective of adherent to order and structure. The poem is not itself unless in the
structure that Stevens provides and writes in.
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CONCLUSION
Wallace Stevens’ poetry suggests much about the nature of humanity. He suggests that humanity
is bound by a desire for structure. He suggests we have been separated from nature, and that we are not
better than nature or in a position to give nature anything back. The poem, “The Anecdote of the Jar” is a
poem with a great deal of meaning and symbolism buried beneath its simplistic story. It shows that even
as simple and straightforward an act as placing a jar in the wilderness is a very deep, and symbolic act.
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