In the poem "Anecdote of the Jar, " the narrator elucidates an account of a jar which stands as a metaphor for art.
The narrator places a round jar upon a hill in Tennessee. The jar attracts the attention of the unruly wilderness (which is a metaphor for common people) from its vantage point. Thus, the wilderness surrounds the hill.
The wilderness rises up to it and loses its barbarity. The narrator restates that "The jar was round" stressing that art is complete by itself. The polished piece of art is consistent and has the ability to affect people with its grandeur.
The jar that seemed passive took dominion everywhere with its inertness and transparency. Art is not useful to a bird or a bush "Like nothing else in Tennessee" (The poet could have meant the epidemic flu and the racial riot during the period 1918 - 1919 when the poem was written) but it can influence and alter the human mind for the betterment of the society. Thus, Stevens expounds the exaltation of of art and its power over the society.
