In the
Modern Period, we begin to see writers and poets finding new ways to look at
relatively common objects. “Anecdote of the Jar” by Wallace Stevens is
one of the examples of this. Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American Modernist poet. He wrote the Anecdote of The Jar in 1919. The
narrator places a common household object, which is a jar on a hill. The
jar has a rather poor effect on the surrounding countryside: it tames the
wilderness and drives away the flora and fauna of Tennessee.
In the
poem, Anecdote of the Jar, Stevens portrays the complex relationship of human
to nature through confusion of who is greater than whom, how they depend on
each other, the connection between the two, and the form the poem is written
in. Stevens forces the reader to feel the confusion and chaos present between
the jar (a symbol for humans) and nature. This relationship can be felt and
read through the form the poem is written in.
We can see the connection of
humans to the natural world through the first and last lines of the poem. These
two lines embody the poem to start and finish in a calm way. Both end in the word
Tennessee. This can show the relationship outline as being simple. Just as the
port went above all the chaos, the outline of the poem goes around the chaos
The first line of the poem is the beginning of the relationship. This opens the
reader in a confusing state to figure out what Stevens is really trying to get
across. This mass confusion is the body of the relationship. Somewhere in the
poem, Stevens shows in a deeper meaning of the relationship through a
connection. As the poem nears the end, the same word is used to end the poem.
That is the end of the relationship; there is no more to be added. It leaves
the reader feeling satisfied, even if he or she didn't understand the content
of the poem.
Through
the simple use of metaphor, Stevens has created a masterful work in the
Modernist tradition. This poem address the issues of metaphor and
fragmentation as well as other modernist poems. Related to the theme of
destruction is the theme of fragmentation. Fragmentation in modernist
literature is thematic, as well as formal. Plot, characters, theme, images, and
narrative form itself are broken. The
fragmentation used in this poem also being used to demonstrate the chaotic state of modern existence.
All in all, Stevens truly does a wonderful job of
portraying the relationship of humans to nature. By using the jar to represent
man, he was successful in creating an environment not only expressed in the
poem, but also felt by the reader. He used irregular rhymes and role changes to
express the complex relationship. The reader is left with confusion but a slight
understanding of the relationship. Stevens expressed the relationship of humans
to nature very well m this piece of work.