Study Questions

1. How is the jar related to nature?  Considering their interrelations, what are the symbolic meanings of the jar?
    

   Before answering this question, you need to look closely at
   1) what the jar does in the poem first and then what nature ("the wilderness") does in response.
   2) the word "Port" (l. 8)--which refers not to "a harbor" but to "bearing and attitude."  Compare this and the other descriptions of the jar in stanza two with those in stanza three.  How are they different?
   3) You can then try to decide the poet's attitude toward the jar, praising it for organizing nature, criticizing it for disturbing nature, or remaining ambivalent about it.  Pay attention to the last line of the poem.

2. Why is the title called "an anecdote"?  What is the significance of the speaker, who placed the jar in Tennessee?  And why in Tennessee?  (Do we, for instance, know where Keats' urn is?)   In other words, is the jar itself a work of art, or the placing of the jar in a certain place?

1. In this poem, like "The Dance," the word "round" is repeated, and both of the poem opening and closing lines end with Tennessee.  What do you think is the effect of these repetitions of sounds and words?  Also, pay attention to the other open vowels around the word "round."
2. Are there rhymes in this poem?