A "lure" is something that tempts or attracts with the promise of pleasure or reward. An "object" is something perceptible by one or more of the senses, especially by vision or touch. In poems ranging from Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" to Stevens' "Anecdote of the Jar" and Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow," the lure of the object constitutes the major theme. For these poets, commonplace or ordinary objects have something attractive that needs to be teased out, expanded and amplified. This obsession with the ordinary objects runs against the conventional idea that everyday object is boring, quotidian, and anything but poetic.
Use 200-250 words to analyze these poems; you can either focus on one poem or do a comparative analysis: how do these poets bestow magical powers on an otherwise banal object? How does this fascination with and depiction of everyday objects help you re-see the world around you?
32 comments:
First, in the first stanza, the poet uses two different kinds of angle to depict the urn. One is to use the first- person narrator to describe the picture on the urn, you can see the first line “still unravish’d bride of quietness” is to depict that the urn is pure and has never been tainted; and the other one is to let the urn like a historian to tell a tale much more even than a poet.
The second and third stanza speaks to music, love and nature. The first line, "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter", I think this is depict music on the urn, though it can’t really heard, you still can be touched from deep soul. And, from the fifteenth line to twentieth line depict the other picture that you can’t touch your lover, but she still exists with your true heart forever. I think the “love” has to keep a distance from each other, though this is a sorrow, just because of sorrow let distance has unlimited imagination and possibility, they give people enthusiasm of aspiration.
The forth stanza represents the desolation of life.
The fifth stanza is the most impressive to me. I feel that this stanza gives me many thoughts. I want to ask myself, “What’s the true beauty? And where is it come from? ”Suddenly, I realize that beauty comes from pain and joy’s life, this is true! The life’s essence is the source of art, and art makes life’s essence to become eternity.
BY AMY SUN
Sorry,professor > <
My topic is"Ode on a Grecian Urn"
AMY SUN
Anecdote of the Jar
It was just a jar. But when the speaker placed it in Tennessee, then everything seemed to change. It was not only a jar anymore. The speaker shaped the jar as a magical jar making all the disorder become no longer wild. The jar was gray and bare, but powerful. The air surrounded it changed into solemn atmosphere. The authority of the jar took dominion over Tennessee, where the speaker regarded as wildness gather. The magical power of the jar brought civilization to the city.
After the teacher explained the meaning of this poem, I found that I have an obsession with the idea in the poem. The jar can be seen as art in our life. Art is just like the jar making all the disorder become well-ordered, including us. It promotes our mind to the higher level. We aren’t like other animals living for propagating. We live for fulfillment. We are searching for the art belonging to ourselves. The speaker was inspired by the jar randomly seen in life, and I was insipid by his experience. Art is everywhere in our lives. Even the simple object can give us a lesson. If we observe our environment carefully, amazement is everywhere.
The Red Wheelbarrow
I love “The Red Wheelbarrow” written by William Carlos Williams the most. I think it is not only a poem but also a picture. And William just showed us a kind of harmonious image in this poem. By the way, this poem is really typical that the lure of the object constitutes the major theme.
In the first stanza, we can know that the red wheelbarrow is an ordinary object that the farmers depend a lot to move crops in their daily lives. Although the red wheelbarrow is ordinary, it is indispensable.
In the second and third stanza, the author told us that the red wheelbarrow is glazed with the drops of water. It became entirely new and shiny. “Rain” here is also common in the daily life.
In the fourth stanza, the author indicated that the red wheelbarrow is standing beside the white chickens, which are domestic animals we can see every day. In addition, the "white" and the "active" of the chickens combine with the "red" and the "still" of the wheelbarrow and constitute a harmonious picture.
In my opinion, I think this poem is really amazing. William didn’t use a lot of words, but he exactly imposed the magic power on the red wheelbarrow. The red wheelbarrow, drops of the rain and the white chickens are all common things; however, William made them attractive by describing them vividly. After reading this poem, I realize that even the most banal object has the most magical power.
I’m going to talk about ‘’Anecdote of the Jar’’:
When I first time saw this topic, I really felt some interested in it. There is the story of the jar? That is pretty cool! I think the speaker is going to personify the jar. Then give us the different view of this normal object.
In the first stanza, it was the description of the jar’s situation. The speaker was starting to give the main role to the jar of this show. All the wildness surrounded the jar to amplify power on its status.
Second stanza is the most important stanza. In here, some symbol was coming out. ‘’The wilderness rose up to it’’ and ‘’sprawled around’’ it give us the mess landscape. But the little jar was standing in the middle which made the mess have some kind of perfect order. It is the symbol of “beauty”.
In the third stanza, the jar controlled the whole view and attracted our eye contact. We can say that the ‘’beauty’’ controlled the nature and our eye. Despite the jar do not have life.
Maybe this is the ‘’art’’. The art gives the everyday object different definitions. Makes ordinary become the beauty. Having the dinner is the art. Having a cup of tea is also the art. We can just slow down our step to experience those BEAUTIES.
First, in Ode on a Grecian Urn, the urn was compared to other things. The writer took advantage of the sense of sight and the sense of hearing to tell us its beauty. The most important is that although the urn is featureless and lifeless, it is immortal. And from the urn, we may see the vestige of the history. Second, in Anecdote of the Jar, the usual jar made everything methodic. Because of the jar, there was a center in the boundless ground and we could easily make out scenery which was surrounded by the jar. A plain thing had a big function in this poem. Finally, in The Red Wheelbarrow, the writer used the animate chicken to react the motionless wheelbarrow. Because the chicken could move, we could easily see its being. However, the wheelbarrow could not move by itself, we would not notice it unless we had to use it.
With our life being better and better, we enjoy great living function. We take everything for granted. We will not be attracted by the routine and we don’t pay more attention on the things which are dull, savorless and not rare. One day, if we lost those common things, what would our life look like?
The Red Wheelbarrow
The whole poem is actually a sentence which has a significant meaning on the red wheelbarrow. The poem is cut into four pieces so that it makes the poem a special tone that emphasizes the main object. In line three, the color “red” creates an impact of vigorous and vivid on the wheelbarrow. The poet separates the word wheelbarrow into wheel and barrow to make us imagine the object more clearly. In the fourth and fifth line, looks like the red wheelbarrow is taking a shower and it gives us a new and bright image. In the end lines, the color “white” that describes the chickens is compared to the “red” wheelbarrows above. Because the chickens are alive and they can move freely, I think the poet compares them with the red wheelbarrow to make the red wheelbarrow seems unique and lively.
I think that The Red Wheelbarrow is a simple and cute poem. There are many necessary things in our life that we often use them and see them everyday. We may not observe them deeply or think of them as important things. But when there’s a moment that you slow down and see through the simple things beside you, you will find that the simplest things are the most interesting things. And you will feel appreciated and interested to use the things in better ways. Like my umbrella, I had not taken too much attention on it. But today was a rainy day, and I was wondering where my umbrella was. When I finally saw it comfortably hanging on the wall, I was so glad that I kind of like seeing an old friend and other things beside it are just decorations to make it special. It’s just a simple thing, merely an umbrella, but I think I will cherish it more and use it more carefully.
I think poets use common object surrounding us can make us deepen about the poem. We may not feel that poems are too difficult to understand.
I want to talk about the poem,’’ Anecdote of the Jar.’’ In the first stanza, the poet who through the place he put the jar depicted the situation about Tennessee. I think it was persuasive because we know what is jar. We see jar in our life everywhere. We can see and touch the jar.
In the second stanza, the poet also through the jar explained that the place was little different. The wilderness rose up and the jar joined the changing. Jar was like our eyes to observe the place. So, we can find something we never find from it.
In the third stanza, the place became waste land so that the jar was gray and bare. It was comparison between the second stanza and the third stanza. The port showed the biggest stretching force of the poem. Through the description, we know that jar will change by its surroundings. Because of the limitation, the place lost its vivid life.
I feel that I am closer to poems by common objects. It is also easier to image what poets want to express. Thanks for these common object, I feel poems are interesting now.
I am going to talk about my opinion of the poem “The Red Wheelbarrow.”
This poem is very short, there are only four stanzas, and each stanza only contains one sentence. But it showed a concise and leisure feeling to me.
In the first stanza, “so much depends on” made me felt very hopeful to the future.
In the second stanza, “a red wheel barrow” is just a daily necessity on the farm, I think that the red barrow is a paved the way for the next stanza.
In the third stanza, “glazed with rain water” I consider that the word glazed is the poetry eye of this poem, it enliven the whole poem, made every objects in the poem becoming vividly.
In the last stanza, “beside the white chickens” I think in order to make a contrast to the red wheelbarrow, the author created the white chickens, to make the poem more abundant.
The red wheel barrow, rain and the white chickens are domestic objects around our side, and the author arranged them like a tranquil screen, but he used the word “glazed” to endow life to all the objects of the poem, and it became a beautiful picture in my brain.
In the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the first stanza, the author describes the urn as an unravished bride of quietness to show the urn doesn’t be impact by time. And in the second line, slow time also tells reader the urn is still. At the back of this stanza, the author tells what the picture in the urn clearly, maybe it is a part of history because he says the urn is a sylvan historian in the third line.
In the second stanza, the first sentence “heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter” shows the melodies that you imagine are so sweet. Your imagination can do every sweet melody even though something impossible is heard. That let me think our imagination can add amusement to our life. Everything is possible in our imagination. And ordinary things can make you imagine something interesting and get more pleasantness, too.
In the fifth line of the fifth stanza, the author says urn is eternity art. It emphasizes that it freezes the image, time and space. This referred to the same meaning with the first stanza. Besides, the urn is Cold Pastoral, it also means it is indifferent to the change of the world, like the world of the pain and disappointment. It makes me think the value of art won’t change along the time, it just become more valuable but valueless. And it also can make people understand a part of history whether it’s true or false.
The author, Williams is good at capturing trifle things in live. In the first stanza, those two lines confuse me a lot. However, when I keep going on the second, third and fourth stanza, I see a simple picture of the countryside. And I suddenly realize what the author wants to show is exactly this picture, which is simple but important just like the first stanza mentions. We can see that the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens are both common to see in a farm. They are the elements to build up the landscape painting. Also, they are the simple elements that establish our agriculture civilization. They represent the vitality of our civilization. In the third stanza, it’s a view of still water. Just like the still water, Williams wants to tell us that the conventional agriculture still exists in some kind of form. But, these days, it is a pity that they are losing very quickly. Williams lets us re-see the relationship between nature and human beings. Maybe he wants to remind us not to forget those conventional things because it’s not just the stuff weeded out by time. It can be an esthetics for us.
I would like to talk about Ode on a Grecian Urn. The urn is a container used for holding a dead person's ashes. In my opinion, what makes the urn not banal anymore is the imagination of the speaker. Human must die. However, no one wants to die. I think that the speaker is afraid of dying and the urn makes him think of the way of preservation. To make things never fade away, the speaker imagines all the beautiful things stays at their best moment. Further, he makes them be a little bit uncompleted. For example, he didn’t let the lovers kiss. I think those uncompleted parts are the most alluring. In the world, we all chasing at some kind of fulfill. We tried our best to reach the goal. However, the speaker thought that after you reach it, things are not getting better, but worse. These thoughts make the urn not longer just an urn. However, it signifies a spirit that beauty is the truth and it will never fade away. From this point of view of the poem, I think that all the beautiful artificial stuff that around us is a kind of art. Someone said, “Art is life.” I really love this idea. Once we clam down, relax and pay attention to our surrounding, there are so much fun, so much beautiful things. We are touched by the beautiful stuff and create works to express the feeling, where art comes. It will makes our thoughts, our mind and our feeling last forever.
When we live under the age which would not accept ourselves, what's worse, nobody listens to us. What we can do is maybe find something to repose on. Hence, I want to talk about jar.
Jar is a daily object, nobody cares at all. But as it is put on the wilderness of Tennessee, it becomes vivid and vigorous and even has authority. As far as I am concerned, wilderness, a place without civilization, vast and bleak, and is waiting for something to change and embellish it. Jar, a handiwork made by human knowledge, has its glamour to enlighten the barbarous pure land. Because of the large and extensive of Tennessee, with an artificial jar would be totally queer. Maybe as we place a tack in Tennessee, the magic power could bring about. Everything object could be a piece if art. It's so simple.
Sometimes people pursue of pearl, rare and precious stone. People like to see the beautiful as well as the extremely fine craftsmanship of nature. Who would care for the wilderness of Tennessee? Also the daily thing──jar. We use jar nothing but put things to preserve. But when we combine them together, it strikes sparks! "Jar" could govern the wasteland! If someone places a jewelry in the wilderness, maybe it would just attract a lots people to exploit it, rather than admire how pieces of art it is! Though it would become bustling, it would end up change the essence of pure nature. Should we only seek assiduously for fame and wealth?
I am going to talk about the poet “Anecdote of the Jar”. In the first stanza “I placed a jar in Tennessee”, I feel a strong comparison. The jar is a work of art, but Tennessee is a place of wilderness. There is a confliction of civilization and savageness going on here.
The second stanza “The wilderness rose up to it, and sprawled around, no longer wild”. The jar makes Tennessee very humanity and no more wild. This stanza makes me feel surprise, because the jar is just a common thing in our life. However, it makes a lot of change.
The third stanza “Like nothing else in Tennessee” means the jar is so different. However, it can change everything. It changes the uncivilized place into an artist place. Everything which is disorder becomes order.
I associate this poet with our daily life. I find everything humanity is just like that jar. When I put it into an unorderly environment, the “jar” can makes a lot of change. It can improve the wilderness of the society. When our life becomes a dull wilderness, we can still find a spiritual thing to make our life better. Everything in life can be arts, we can find something as our own “jar”.
Kendrick
I would like to talk about the “The Red Wheelbarrow”.
In line 1-2, the word "depends" makes us think that this is one special wheelbarrow, and we almost feel like the wheelbarrow is being personified at this moment.
In line 3-4, the speaker uses enjambment to split the word "wheel" from the word "barrow." This makes us think about wheelbarrows more carefully. We realize that, just like the word "wheelbarrow," a wheelbarrow is composed primarily of two parts: a wheel and a barrow.
In line 6, the assonance of "beside" and "white" gives this line momentum and movement.
Finally, in line 7, the speaker uses enjambment to break apart "white chickens". By placing "chickens" on its own, we feel like these must be some important chickens.
Anecdote of the Jar
In the poem, Wallace Stevens portrays the complex relationship of human and nature through the confusion of who is greater, how they depend on each other, the connection between human and nature.
In the first stanza, describe the situation of the jar. It indicate that the jar in “Tennessee”. In the last sentence, “Tennessee” also appears in the last word. speaker give the role appear in the beginning of the poem. “It made the slovenly wilderness” the line clearly point out the location. In this stanza, speaker clearly describes the situation of jar.
In the second stanza, “The jar was round, no longer wild.” The section of the poem shows the dependency of humans on nature. It describe the connection between humans and nature. I thought that “ And tall and of a port in air” also describe the connection.
In the third stanza, “It took dominion everywhere”, “It” refer the nature, mean the power that it can dominate jar (human) . Nature dominate weaken humans. The next line, “The jar was gray and bare” describe the jar being simple. It become ineffective and powerless.
The speaker put the jar in Tennessee, it is not a normal jar. Through the jar portray the relationship of human and nature. It let us have more imagination of the jar. Give the jar life and beauty. The normal thing can have it own beauty that just wait us explore it.
Ode on a Grecian Urn
This poem describes objects beautifully in a special way, which is to freeze the moment or the scene from the beginning to the end. In my opinion, this poem is very ambivalent. A sense of vividness lies in every stanza, but it is portrayed into a frozen image. Take the second stanza for example, imagination is much more sweeter than what we actual heard because imagination is creativity, and we are able to create many different things, just like the unheard melody and the no-toned ditties is better than the one we heard; the beautiful girl that we can never reach is forever young and beautiful, just like the love towards her will never vanish. And in the third stanza, “all breathing human” is relate to the reality saying all human love cannot late forever, it will eventually die. In the last stanza, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” indicates that the real beauty only exist in the frozen world.
This reminds me of the masterpieces I have seen in the museum: the real world is changing every minute, and we are living in a world full of pain and disappointment. However, our imagination and those masterpieces will live on and will never fade away. No matter how old I visit the museum, a couple of love bird printed the pottery or the living sunflower lain on the canvas will always froze at that perfect moment, so by reading Keats’ poem, I realize that those arts are not dead objects, on the contrary, they can actually narrate more stories or things better than a real person. That is the reason why I found Keats’ poem interesting.
“The Red Wheelbarrow” impressed me most. At first, I think it seemed to be easy to understand, because this poem was composed by a sentence. Actually, it is quiet abstract. The less clue poet gives us, the more difficult for us to understand.
On the other hand, if we change our thinking and viewpoint. This poem gives me an image of picture. Poet uses concise words to describe what he saw vividly. I think William Carlos Williams challenges the typical poem rule, which should consist of rhyme and poetic description and he also promotes an idea about using ordinary thing from our daily life to express the most sincere feeling from the bottom of heart. That is, poem can be more close to common people without specific poetry form. I think William Carlos Williams are very Intuitive, and there are different explanations vary from person to person.
Within these poems, authors describe those objects in a fantastic way. It changes our views towards those ordinary objects. And I will focus on discussing one poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. It starts by presenting the reader with a slowly unfolding situation, with the narrator focusing on the images depicted on the urn. John Keats bestows magical power by creating the impression of a frozen moment in the first stanza. The image of frozen time is inextricably bound up with the notion of the ideal, and it is the advantages and also the disadvantages of such a state which enthrals the narrator throughout the second and third stanzas. The narrator's meditations on the ideal would appear to have yielded the metaphor: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty', the closing lines conveying the overriding impression that a person's life is transitory and subject to change, while the frozen ideal of the urn is timeless. If we could look upon this urn that John Keats attempts to identify with at length, there is no doubt that we too might feel appreciation, longing, and discomfort. If it is the urn addressing mankind, then the phrase has rather the weight of an important lesson, as though beyond all the complications of human life, all human beings need to know on earth is that beauty and truth are one and the same. It is largely a matter of personal interpretation which require us to accept.
Lily
When I first read “Anecdote of the Jar” by Wallace Stevens, I thought the jar was itself, a magical object because the “wilderness rose up around it”. Although the poet describes the jar as “gray and bare”, I thought this was just to emphasize that the seemingly plain jar was, in fact, not just an average jar. The poet tells us the jar is abnormal by saying it is normal. The order of the descriptions in the second stanza calls up an image of a rotating jar standing erect in the grass, with the vision-camera closing in and out continuously.
While Stevens lets me imagine the jar as I want while using his words, Keats depicts what he sees for us; the image of the urn I imagine in my head is based on what he tells me, without an inch of my own imaginations. However, by doing so, the urn seems to have a story. Normally, when seeing artifacts as the urn in museums, I only think of reading the history behind it. I do not try to imagine what the urn itself might want to say. Upon reading the poem, I realize that I want to know what the urn wants to express; that there is always a story behind such artifacts, not only in museums, but also in the sculptures in the sidewalks and parks, in pictures taken, in almost everything.
Shawn said:
In order to accomplish this assignment, I have read some information of Tennessee of the time the author wrote the poem.
In my opinion, I think the jar is a representation of the growing industry in Tennessee, while the wilderness represents the natural state of the land. However, in present days, we can realize that places which are developed have a lot of man-made and unliving structures, and the following consequences is that less amount of wild life.
In other hand, the jar’s tall structure can represent tall skyscrapers or buildings that have been built as a result of industry, and in this poem, industrialization was a new concept to Tennessee in the 1920.
This poem uses the placement of the jar to show the drastic impact of the Industrial Revolution, and expresses how changed the environment and the surroundings of Tennessee.
In my conclusion, since humans have no way to stop nature’s counterattack and wrath, then we can see the point of the poem that Stevens sees nature as the dominant figure.
After reading this poem, I was a little confused about the poem itself, maybe because the length of the poem is too short, or I was not sensible enough to realize the meaning the poem want to express to me.
In the beginning, the first stanza, “so much depends upon”, this sudden phrase confuses the words we used.
The second stanza, a few simple but complex words forces our mind to reconsider “words” such as wheelbarrow and gives it more importance.
The third stanza finally gives us a hint of the speaker’s point: the wheelbarrow is “glazed with rain/ water.”
The final stanza finally completes the picture: “beside the white/ chickens” implies a rural setting, and the presence of life.
Shawn said:
The first Paragraph is Anecdote of the Jar, and the second one is The Red Wheelbarrow.
Thanks.
In my opinion, “Anecdote of the Jar” is a poem which contains some meanings. The author used a jar to symbolize human and narrated the relationship between human and nature. The most important is the adjectives that author used. Slovenly, gray and bare shows the power of nature has over the human. It not only makes readers feel interested but gives more implication that made readers think more about modern life.
I think “The Red Wheelbarrow” this poem is interesting. The author, Williams, observe quotidian with fresh eye and express what he sees with fresh language statement. He makes this poem simple also rich. The poem just likes its topic; at first, you think a red wheelbarrow is nothing to say. However, when you look it seriously, you would find something special. Both of this poem’s shape and content are colorful pictures. In the poem, a little red wheelbarrow loads many things hardly at a rainy day. We can through the wheelbarrow to image how that “cart” work hard. In the end of poem appear some "white" chickens they immediately become a bright point with “red” wheelbarrow. They also constitute a dynamic and a static contrast. The hard work of life, shelter, irritability, and a few "white chicken" swept away.
In our daily life, there is much beauty in everywhere. We are always short of discovering. In terms of me, I think I am similar with Williams. I always observe things surrounded me and image what’s story behind them. Life attentively can make us get much joy. Don’t consider everything for granted or you would feel boring every day.
In the “The Red Wheelbarrow”, the red wheelbarrow only shows silently. It just stays there quietly. The writer uses a lot of elements to describe the red wheelbarrow. In the third stanza, he uses the rain to say that the red wheelbarrow is just like a diamond shining. It connects with the first stanza that says the red wheelbarrow is important. He also uses the color to show us a vivid scene. The red wheelbarrow and the white chicken, the scene gives us the imagination. We can see a clear picture of a pastoral farm.
The writer sees a red wheelbarrow and he observes it. He uses his imaginary to let the silent thing become so interesting. He gives the sort to the wheelbarrow. I think I should also make myself plaid and I can discover something I never knew but always by my side. The kind of experience can help me to know more about the Earth, where I am living on. This will help me to treasure every item, and make me more sensitive. I will be better than now and this will make me feel more comfortable with anything that I cannot totally understand before.
In the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, I think that the author used personification to describe the patterns on the Grecian Urn. In the first stanza, the author describes the urn as an unravished bride of quietness to show the urn doesn’t be impact by time. In the second stanza, the beautiful girl that we can never reach is forever young and beautiful, just like the love towards her will never vanish, a sense of vividness is most present in this stanza, we can easily get into the story of the Grecian Urn. In the third stanza, “all breathing human” tells us that all human love cannot live forever. In the last stanza, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” indicates that the real beauty only can be achieve in eternity.
I think neither human can live forever and experience all the events in human history, nor even tell the story that happened a long time ago. However, antique can tell us what happened in the past. But, we can hardly realize what the patterns on the antique convey what information about the history. After reading John Keats’ poem, I think the antique can be a better story teller than alive human.
Nick:
Ode on a Grecian Urn
John Keats describes this poem in various senses, including sight, hearing, and so on. I take a liking to his special writing technique and the setting in this poem. A frozen image, frozen time, and frozen space with a banal urn. I prefer and completely agree with John Keats’ opinion toward everyday things; that is, the time before getting to the top is the most beautiful time for everything, for things are going to fall down once it’s on the top. I could help but strike a chord to this statement, for it’s just like the relationships between people. People always say that they will get together forever. The problem is what is forever? Everybody and everything are going to and are bound to be faded away from the surface of the earth, which means things may spoil after going with each other. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no so-called eternity in the world. So, I agree with John Keats’ opinion that frozen moment has immortality. Only by frozen can things and people exist for good. Furthermore, the eternal sense of beauty is the most beautiful thing in the world.
Analyzing of “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
This poem is beautiful. I like to know how a banal object looks like in a great poet’s eyes. At the first stanza, the urn is connected with a historic sense, myth and ancient culture. A good opening makes me want to keep reading (I like Geek myth, too.) Then, his imagination moves to its pattern. A perfect moment he thought is frozen on the urn. For instance, a musician forever plays his silent melody, and an erotic guy can never reach. Trees are ever green and people’s emotions, warmth and feelings are still. I think the feeling is like looking at a picture. But the great poet’s description is more beautiful than the picture itself. And then he imagines a story or a motion picture about the people coming to an ancient ceremony on the urn as if there is something really exists or happens. It’s funny to make those little guys living. He also expanded this scene: the sacrifice is crying, a small town is desolate (because people are frozen at the altar so that they can’t return) and the ceremony is take place at morning. This kind of way helps me to use my imagination when watching a boring fine art. For instance, I can imagine a dead person’s picture is smiling at me or talking to me and then see their ghosts every night in my dream. She may be Mona Lisa or he may be Van Gogh.
In this poem, Anecdote of the jar, Wallace Steven talks about a relationship between jar and nature. The speaks seemingly portraits the jar as a bare and gray bottle which is placed in the wild. Readers may think this is a poem about a description of landscape. However, the poet intriguingly use nature and jar to be symbols of disorder and order. On the other hand, the jay seems to be a unpolluted thing and there is not spot on it; on the contrary, the nature is messy and chaotic view. In the first stanza line three “It made the slovenly wilderness surround that hill”, it obviously tells the reader how conflicting they are between jar and nature and how messy the nature is. Most importantly, the final stanza emphasizes and praise the importance of the jar. The speaker tells what the gray and bare jar is and it symbolizes a center of art. Furthermore, the jar has hitherto been a symbol of the beginning of art; it’s like a piece of white paper without any spot and anything which surrounds it would be the jar’s foil for making it outstanding. Although the readers may think this poem is difficult to be analyzed and understood, the truth is that the speaker uses masterly method to speak the deep meaning of this poem and what the theme is in this poem.
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