Anecdote of the Jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee, And round it went Upon a hill. It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill.

The jar was gray and bare. It took dominion everywhere. The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a port in air.

The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild. It did not give of bird or bush Like nothing else in Tennessee.

• Wallace Stevens