Analysis Of Anecdote Of The Jar By Wallace Stevens

In “Anecdote of the Jar” by Wallace Stevens, Stevens explores the power of humans to create meaning through their actions and creations, and more specifically art. Stevens argues that through the organization and ordering of an environment via the presence of art, that people can determine what is considered civilized and what is less so. The poem progresses through three stanzas that make this idea clear in ever widening circles, beginning with the placement of the jar. The first stanza serves to show the reason it is considered an anecdote, to introduce the significance and power of the jar describe the importance of the setting of the poem, and to introduce the major themes of the effects human action and creation can have to create a …show more content…
The importance of the jar is all the more clear in the line, “It took dominion everywhere” because “dominion” has a biblical or divine connotation to it. More importantly though, “everywhere” rhymes with both “air” from the previous stanza, as well as “bare” from the next line. This links the description of the jar as being “gray and bare” with the immense power shown throughout the poem. “Gray and bare” suggest that while the jar can be considered art, it is not the epitome of human society. This is reflected in the meter of “The jar was gray and bare” because it has only three metrical feet, one of which is a trochee, not an iamb. Not only does it highlight the mundanity of the jar, it also stands out from the rest of the stanza, which is written in iambic tetrameter, and implies the importance of the simplicity of the jar. However simple it may be, the jar still has an immense impact. This juxtaposition shows the power of human creation to affect the world around …show more content…
He also invites the reader to look at the placement as not only on a hill but also in Tennessee. This is a poem that is profoundly concerned with what human action and art can do: they make meaning by creating spatial order and making distinctions that defines some spaces as more civilized than others. Even the wilderness itself can be viewed as a human creation, and the jar, which is both simple in appearance and outsized in effect, suggests the power of humans to transform and give meaning to their worlds. The fact that this is done in Tennessee, which is typically considered a rural and unsophisticated area, shows that this can happen in both incredibly civilized and uncivilized places. Look back, one sees the effects of human creation in the effects of an ever widening sense of circles, from the jar, to the hill, to the wilderness, to the entire state of Tennessee.
Looking at the implications of the poem beyond the world described on the page, Stevens argues that art of all calibers has a profound impact upon the world. Poetry is considered a work of art, so, for Stevens, poems are like the jar; a human creation that, when put in the right scenario, can have a large and meaningful impact on certain things and causing smaller changes in things more