Wallace Steven’s poem, Anecdote of the Jar, is structurally simple; however, the message is much more complex. Steven’s ultimately leaves it up the reader to decide what the meaning of the jar in wilderness may be. Immediately, it seems that the jar is profound. It is special. The man-made jar has a unique influence on the wilderness. Perhaps it is more than just a regular jar, or small jar, but a larger more distinctive jar. In the first stanza, Steven’s conveys, “It made the slovenly wilderness surround the jar” (lines 3-4). The wilderness is described as, slovenly, an adjective meaning, messy or dirty. The jar could be so beautiful, so distinctive, that the wilderness surrounds it and is enamored by its appearance, as expressed in second
