The+Soup+Jar,+Dabney+Stuart

One of the most prominent Southern poems is written by Dabney Stuart, //The Soup Jar.// This poem includes many features that give it a particular style. To distinguish a poem you must uncover the form, sound, figurative language, and meaning. Therefore, my mission here is to explain and interpret the secret that lies inside this poem.

//The Soup Jar// is assembled in various ways. It is a short poem that has four stanzas. Each stanza embraces four lines. The only state of sound of this poem is rhyme scheme. Its rhythm flows as: a, b, c, a, c, d, e, c, f, g, h, f, h, i, i, and h. On the other hand, the poem also includes figurative language. There is personification: “It had stood its ground”. This type of figurative language gives human properties to inanimate objects; therefore the jar is given human properties by being stubborn. The poem has rare accounts of alliteration. For example, “warm water” and “gadget guaranteed”. This poem also contains imagery with “… a hunk of glass, back when it burst.” Furthermore, the author utilizes a metaphor I happen to obtain in the poem, "So small a thing-some broken glass, a scar." This expresses the emotional impact that has been imprinted on the son/daughter and father and then discharged leaving a “scar” (or memory of defeat by a simple task).

This poem is so small that it is packed with many characteristics. One theme that shapes this poem is "the truth hurts". The list of this poem's traits and quality can go on forever with every word comparing a phrase or even a whole stanza!

~nourthborn

