In Parenthesis

"In Parenthesis" (published in the United Kingdom in 1937) is an epic poem in novella form by David Jones. The epic prose-poem tells the story of Private John Ball and his unit's war experience in World War I, starting with their military training in England and ending with the Battle of the Somme, and a mediation on history and legend. T. S. Eliot has called it, "a work of literary art which uses the language in a new way."

Jones worked on the novel for ten years. He uses modernist writing techniques in combination with British literary allusions to hint at a connection between World War I and the heroic wars of the English and Welsh past. The poem draws on literary influences from the 6th-century Welsh epic "Y Gododdin" to Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" to try to make sense of the carnage he witnessed in the trenches.

ummary

In Part 1, Jones describes the soldiers training in England and then being shipped to France. Part 2 depicts the soldiers training behind the lines and describes their physical ailments. Part 3 describes their first night in the trenches. John Ball's unit is replacing another unit. John Ball is on sentry duty for the first time. In Part 4, Jones writes about a typical day from morning stand-to to evening stand-down. After cleaning his rifle, John Ball is on sentry duty again with a periscope.

Allusions

"In Parenthesis" features many allusions to British literature, epic stories, pastoral imagery and religious history. While reading the poem, there are three levels of interpretation: the story of John Ball, Religious allusion, and literary context.

Criticism

Paul Fussell, author of "The Great War and Modern Memory", calls this poem a "honorable miscarriage." Fussell believes that Jones uses multiple literary, historical, and religious allusions to glorify a war in which technology had made so unheroic that it could not be turned into a classic myth.

References