David Jones is not the most recognized of the World War I poets, but his work is considered among the finest.
Jones was born on November 1, 1895 in a suburb of London. His mother was a Londoner, but his father, who was a printer for the Christian Herald Press, was Welsh and had grown up in Wales. David’s father learned to speak English to help his career. However, he sang Welsh songs, and that stimulated his son’s interest in Welsh language and Welsh mythology.
His parents belonged to the Church of England. David Jones converted to Roman Catholicism after the war. Both his Welsh heritage and his religion are very evident in his artistic work.
Jones knew by the time he was six years old Jones knew that he wanted to be an artist. When he was 14, he entered Camberwell Art School, where he studied literature and the Impressionist and Pre-Raphaelite schools of art. His teachers had worked with Van Gogh and Gauguin, who both influenced his style. By the time the First World War broke out, he was already a very successful watercolor painter, focusing mostly on portraits and landscapes. His work as a wood-engraver was also well known.
At the beginning of the war, Jones tried to join the Artists' Rifles, but they rejected him because his lungs were weak. Undeterred, he enlisted in the London Welsh Battalion (the 15th) of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He served on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918. He was wounded at Mametz Wood, recuperated in England, then returned to the Ypres Salient, where he participated in the attack on Pilckem Ridge at Passchendaele. In 1918 he contracted trench fever and nearly died. He spent the rest of the war stationed in Ireland.
Like many men, Jones’ own personal war continued long after the Armistice was signed. Jones suffered from shell-shock, which is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. In order to combat it, he threw himself in to his art. In 1932, his work has risen to such a frenzied state that he finished 60 large paintings in just four months. He also worked on writing, including a first draft of his epic work In Parenthesis. But such drive could not continue, and in October 1932 Jones suffered a nervous breakdown. So profoundly was Jones shaken that he was not able to paint again for 16 years.
During the period in which he could not paint, Jones work on In Parenthesis, an epic recalling his experiences in the war through the eyes of a fictional character. The title implies that the events take place in a parenthesis of life – during a period that was set aside and distinct from what came before and what came afterward. It is a long and lyrical poem that is at once specifically about one man’s experiences in a specific war and about war in general, and it is filled with Biblical allustions, Welsh folklore, and allusions to Shakespeare and Malory’s Morte d’Arthur.
Praise was heaped on In Parenthesis and on Jones when it was published in 1937. It won the Hawthornden prize, which at the time was Britain’s only major literary award. T.S. Eliot praised the poem for using words in a new way and W. H. Auden declared it "the greatest book about the First World War." The war historian Michael Howard called it "the most remarkable work of literature to emerge from either world war." Graham Greene thought it "among the great poems of the century." In 1996 the poet and novelist Adam Thorpe said "it towers above any other prose or verse memorial of ... any war." The art historian Herbert Read called it "one of the most remarkable literary achievements of our time." Dylan Thomas wished that he had "done anything as good as David Jones." Hugh MacDiarmid announced that Jones was "the greatest native British poet of the century," and Igor Stravinsky thought him "perhaps the greatest living writer in English". Some have said that Jones did for England what Homer did for the Greeks.
Despite all the praise heaped upon Jones, he is not well read. His highly allusive poems are difficult and long; definitely not appropriate for including in a blog such as this. Reading one is a major undertaking. His visual arts have ascended even as his written ones have fallen in favor, and his paintings now command a hefty price.
In 1970, Jones fell and broke the ball of his femur. He never fully recovered and died on October 28, 1974.
Jones was born on November 1, 1895 in a suburb of London. His mother was a Londoner, but his father, who was a printer for the Christian Herald Press, was Welsh and had grown up in Wales. David’s father learned to speak English to help his career. However, he sang Welsh songs, and that stimulated his son’s interest in Welsh language and Welsh mythology.
His parents belonged to the Church of England. David Jones converted to Roman Catholicism after the war. Both his Welsh heritage and his religion are very evident in his artistic work.
Jones knew by the time he was six years old Jones knew that he wanted to be an artist. When he was 14, he entered Camberwell Art School, where he studied literature and the Impressionist and Pre-Raphaelite schools of art. His teachers had worked with Van Gogh and Gauguin, who both influenced his style. By the time the First World War broke out, he was already a very successful watercolor painter, focusing mostly on portraits and landscapes. His work as a wood-engraver was also well known.
At the beginning of the war, Jones tried to join the Artists' Rifles, but they rejected him because his lungs were weak. Undeterred, he enlisted in the London Welsh Battalion (the 15th) of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He served on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918. He was wounded at Mametz Wood, recuperated in England, then returned to the Ypres Salient, where he participated in the attack on Pilckem Ridge at Passchendaele. In 1918 he contracted trench fever and nearly died. He spent the rest of the war stationed in Ireland.
Like many men, Jones’ own personal war continued long after the Armistice was signed. Jones suffered from shell-shock, which is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. In order to combat it, he threw himself in to his art. In 1932, his work has risen to such a frenzied state that he finished 60 large paintings in just four months. He also worked on writing, including a first draft of his epic work In Parenthesis. But such drive could not continue, and in October 1932 Jones suffered a nervous breakdown. So profoundly was Jones shaken that he was not able to paint again for 16 years.
During the period in which he could not paint, Jones work on In Parenthesis, an epic recalling his experiences in the war through the eyes of a fictional character. The title implies that the events take place in a parenthesis of life – during a period that was set aside and distinct from what came before and what came afterward. It is a long and lyrical poem that is at once specifically about one man’s experiences in a specific war and about war in general, and it is filled with Biblical allustions, Welsh folklore, and allusions to Shakespeare and Malory’s Morte d’Arthur.
Praise was heaped on In Parenthesis and on Jones when it was published in 1937. It won the Hawthornden prize, which at the time was Britain’s only major literary award. T.S. Eliot praised the poem for using words in a new way and W. H. Auden declared it "the greatest book about the First World War." The war historian Michael Howard called it "the most remarkable work of literature to emerge from either world war." Graham Greene thought it "among the great poems of the century." In 1996 the poet and novelist Adam Thorpe said "it towers above any other prose or verse memorial of ... any war." The art historian Herbert Read called it "one of the most remarkable literary achievements of our time." Dylan Thomas wished that he had "done anything as good as David Jones." Hugh MacDiarmid announced that Jones was "the greatest native British poet of the century," and Igor Stravinsky thought him "perhaps the greatest living writer in English". Some have said that Jones did for England what Homer did for the Greeks.
Despite all the praise heaped upon Jones, he is not well read. His highly allusive poems are difficult and long; definitely not appropriate for including in a blog such as this. Reading one is a major undertaking. His visual arts have ascended even as his written ones have fallen in favor, and his paintings now command a hefty price.
In 1970, Jones fell and broke the ball of his femur. He never fully recovered and died on October 28, 1974.
Jennifer Bohnhoff's novel A Blaze of Poppies is set in New Mexico and the battlefields and field hospitals of France during World War I.
