Modernist poetry explored the problems that arose from rapid urbanization and industrialization in the late 1800s and early 1900
s. Which lines in this excerpt from "Anecdote of the Jar" by Wallace Stevens reflect the themes of barrenness and emptiness in modern life? 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 everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.
The poet shows the effects of urbanization and industralization through the figure of a jar. A jar is the result of manufacturing; however, the poet uses it here as a piece of art. This idea of art is related to the fact that an observer can contemplate an everyday object and turn it into art . This will just take place in the observer's imagination. In the lines above, the jar, as a symptom of industralization, is no longer wild but gray and bare. Nature has been destroyed by industries. Therefore, birds or bushes will not live there any longer. These are signals of barreneness and the fact that there is nothing in a city , Tennessee, shows the emptiness in modern life.
