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Selected Works: from In Parenthesis / The Anathemata / The Sleeping Lord
Jones, David
- GenresPoetry
237 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1992
31 people want to read
About the author
David Jones
10 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
David Jones is one of the finest modernist poets. He was born in London in 1895 and was both a painter and a poet. His reputation as a poet rests largely on two works: In Parenthesis and The Anathemata. The former is a deeply moving account of Jones' experiences in the trenches in the First World War.
In Parenthesis won the prestigious Hawthornden Prize in 1938. In his preface to the 1961 edition, T S Eliot had no hesitation in including Jones along with Joyce, Pound and himself as a premier exponent of literary modernism. The poem is a mixture of prose and verse and is accompanied by Jones' notes. What stands out is the fundamental decency and humanity of those men as they made their way to the slaughter on the front line. This journey is described with such brilliance that the reader becomes immersed in the moment and almost forgets the horrors that await. The notes are equally remarkable and could make a poem in themselves.
W H Auden callled The Anathemata "Very probably the finest long poem written in English in this century" and it is a remarkable work, packed full of the 'mixed data' referred to above and providing a dizzying tour of our cultural past. This too has notes provided by Jones and a long introduction which both explains and justifies the nature of its composition.
David Jones is one of the finest modernist poets. He was born in London in 1895 and was both a painter and a poet. His reputation as a poet rests largely on two works: In Parenthesis and The Anathemata. The former is a deeply moving account of Jones' experiences in the trenches in the First World War.
In Parenthesis won the prestigious Hawthornden Prize in 1938. In his preface to the 1961 edition, T S Eliot had no hesitation in including Jones along with Joyce, Pound and himself as a premier exponent of literary modernism. The poem is a mixture of prose and verse and is accompanied by Jones' notes. What stands out is the fundamental decency and humanity of those men as they made their way to the slaughter on the front line. This journey is described with such brilliance that the reader becomes immersed in the moment and almost forgets the horrors that await. The notes are equally remarkable and could make a poem in themselves.
W H Auden callled The Anathemata "Very probably the finest long poem written in English in this century" and it is a remarkable work, packed full of the 'mixed data' referred to above and providing a dizzying tour of our cultural past. This too has notes provided by Jones and a long introduction which both explains and justifies the nature of its composition.
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October 4, 2014
From David Jones' Preface to his book, The Anathemata--"'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' So wrote Nennius....He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'."
From the Welsh myths and Arthurian legends, Helen of Troy and the Lascaux Cave paintings, the liturgy and theology of the Roman Catholic Church, to his experiences and observations in World War I, his profound etymological explorations, geological and architectural meditations, the great and original modernist poet, painter, essayist and Catholic, David Jones is one of the most innovative and important writers of the 20th century, exciting, absorbing, difficult, and with a "now-ness" out of which he was convinced that contemporary work must be built. At the same time he said that the artist needed to be a rememberer, a bridge. David Jones's unclassifiable works--are they poems or prose?--have been a radiant and enormous milestone in my literary and spiritual life.
Don't overlook his justifiably famous, fascinating footnotes. And please take a look at his paintings. No artist since William Blake has done work in both media on this level.
From the Welsh myths and Arthurian legends, Helen of Troy and the Lascaux Cave paintings, the liturgy and theology of the Roman Catholic Church, to his experiences and observations in World War I, his profound etymological explorations, geological and architectural meditations, the great and original modernist poet, painter, essayist and Catholic, David Jones is one of the most innovative and important writers of the 20th century, exciting, absorbing, difficult, and with a "now-ness" out of which he was convinced that contemporary work must be built. At the same time he said that the artist needed to be a rememberer, a bridge. David Jones's unclassifiable works--are they poems or prose?--have been a radiant and enormous milestone in my literary and spiritual life.
Don't overlook his justifiably famous, fascinating footnotes. And please take a look at his paintings. No artist since William Blake has done work in both media on this level.
Displaying 1 of 1 review