This project follows the strangely consistent fascination in modern and contemporary poetry with vessel objects. From Wallace Stevens\u27 jar [placed] in Tennessee, to That vase of Philip Larkin or James Merrill\u27s clear vase of dry leaves vibrating on and on, even so far back in literary history as the shapely Grecian Urn of John Keats\u27 famous ode among numerous others, the genre is teeming with vessels. I argue that these kinds of objects open up distinctive possibilities for poetic exploration because of the unique way that they engage with space. Consequently, by using these objects as metaphors, poets are able to reflect upon the nuanced relationship between poetry and a non-poetic reality on the one hand, and between an interior subjective life and an external objective world on the other. My analysis reflects the spatial trajectory of this \u27object-metaphor\u27 itself, examining the three main topographical components that constitute all vessels: 1) the vessel\u27s contained interior space, 2) the realm surrounding or exterior to the object, and 3) its creatively constructed surface which functions as the physical boundary between the other two spaces
