Anecdote of the Jar

This poem written by Wallace Stevens gives a complex relationship between the jar and nature.   The jar in the poem represents a human.   It also shows how the jar and nature relies on each other.   There are only three stanzas and it does not have a scale because none of the lines rhyme with each other.   Most of the lines in this poem had eight syllables, but was very inconsistent.   This complex poem was difficult to understand; especially the relationship between the jar and nature.  

In the first stanza, dominance is in the possession of the jar.   The line “It made the slovenly wilderness  Surround that hill” shows that the authority is put in the possession of the jar, as it has joined with nature for the first time.  In the second stanza, the role of domination switches from the jar back to nature.   The line “The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild” shows that nature controls what goes on.   This was the confusing point of the poem since there was a reversal of roles between the jar and nature.   In the third stanza, the jar which represents the human is under complete control of nature.   The line “It took dominion everywhere” gave a sense that humans are susceptible to whatever nature has become.   It is like the humans are vulnerable and completely powerless to nature.

At the end of the poem, there is another confusing point as through most of this poem; nature loses their authority over the humans.   According to the line “It did not give of bird or bush”, this shows that the jar(humans) doesn’t give into nature.   Humans seemed to prevail in the end.   The relationship throughout this poem was very shifty and was hard to keep up with.