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,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
The word “It” is ambiguous. “It” may refer to nature because “jar” is used in the following line and how nature has a hand in every part of this world. “It” may also refer to the jar and how man-kind was spreading its dominance everywhere. In addition, “It” might also refer to the connection or port between man and nature and how this connection takes precedence everywhere in the world.
Anecdote of the Jar