I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.
The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.
It took dominion every where.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
There is confusion in the air at this point of the poem. There is no clear dominating force between man and nature because their connection, the port, rises above all that can be seen, like air.
Anecdote of the Jar