paperback ISBN: 978-0-7083-2054-9
hardback ISBN: 978-0-7083-2055-6
‘The significance of Dilworth’s volume is that it is directed specifically towards the non-specialist. He ‘narrates’ and explicates Jones’s published poems and sequences, carefully elucidating those elements which commonly cause the first-time reader the most bafflement, and he intelligently examines the complex themes and ideas of the poems . . . Dilworth manages to write an introductory work that is accessible to the non-specialist and specialist alike.’ Dr G. J. Downes
Jones, hailed as one of the great modernists (as an artist and a poet) by luminaries such as Eliot and Auden, is currently undergoing a revival in popularity in the UK, USA and Europe, particularly in Francophone Europe. Nevertheless, Jones’s poetry is often regarded as difficult to read owing to his highly original and unfamiliar allusions. In his book, Professor Dilworth seeks to provide a guided tour through the poems by making the poetry accessible to the student market and also the non-specialist reader while also providing original and new insights.
The poems are considered in the sequence in which they were written with step by step commentary and guidance by the author, in conjunction with Jones’s visual art together with much new biographical information.
Thomas Dilworth is Distinguished Professor at the University of Windsor, Canada. He is widely regarded as arguably the leading expert on the poetry of David Jones. He has published prolifically on David Jones for leading UK, French and Canadian presses and was the recipient of the British Council Prize in the Humanities in 1989.