“War is a test case for the meaning of life,” observes Dr. Thomas Dilworth, as he introduces this special audio recording of David Jones.

In Parenthesis is an epic poem by David Jones published in 1937, containing seven sections. It tells the story of a group of British soldiers as they travel from England to the trenches of the Battle of Somme in WWI. Section three is a night watch. Although Jones wrote In Parenthesis as a fictional account of Private John Ball and other soldiers, he draws from his own experiences in The Great War, one of which was night guard duty.

This portion of In Parenthesis is called “Night Watch",” which begins on page 51 (see the PDF below). The preeminent biographer of David Jones, Dr. Thomas Dilworth, joins us to talk about the poem. Dilworth not only provides context for Night Watch, but also he helps us to see that David Jones wrote for the common person, not the academic. Many thanks to Dr. Dilworth for providing us with these special audio recordings of Jones.

“Night Watch” begins at the 16 minute mark after the commentary.

Thomas Dilworth is the pre-eminent reader and interpreter of the work of David Jones and has published extensively on the subject. His books include David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet; The Shape of Meaning in the Poetry of David Jones; Reading David Jones; and David Jones in the Great War. He is the editor of Jones’s illustrated Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Jones’s Wedding Poems and Inner Necessities, the Letters of David Jones to Desmond Chute.

Here are some of the war sketches done by David Jones:

In the future, we’re going to revisit our previously published audio recording of The Hunt by David Jones with Dr. Dilworth alongside to give us similar helpful context. As always, thank you for listening, and please consider sharing this wonderful audio recording of David Jones.

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