{{Short description|Epic Poem written by David Jones}} {{Infobox book | image = The Anathemata.jpg | name = The Anathemata | author = [[David Jones (artist-poet)|David Jones]] | language = English, with some Latin and Welsh | country = [[United Kingdom]] | genre = [[Epic poem]] | publisher = [[Faber and Faber]] | preceded_by = [[In Parenthesis]] | followed_by = [[The Sleeping Lord|The Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments]] }}
'''''The Anathemata''''' is an [[epic poem]] by the British poet [[David Jones (artist-poet)|David Jones]], first published in England in 1952. Along with 1937's ''[[In Parenthesis]]'', it is the text upon which Jones' reputation largely rests.
==Summary== The poem is a symbolic, dramatic anatomy of historical western culture. Composed of eight sections, it narrates the thought processes of one cambrophile (lover of all things Welsh) English [[Catholic]] at [[Mass in the Catholic Church | Mass]] over the span of roughly seven seconds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=119 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref> Section I: "Rite and Fore-time" begins during a mid-twentieth century Mass, but quickly shifts to contemplate prehistoric ritual and myth-making. In the following sections, "Middle-sea and Lear-sea", "Angle-Land", and "Redriff", Jones' poem considers the theme of nautical navigation. Throughout, several ships in distinct historical periods sail westward from Troy to Rome (following the [[the trojan war | fall of Troy]]), then around Western Europe to the English coast (ca. 400AD), and finally to London via the [[Thames]] in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=131 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref> Section V, "The Lady of the Pool", is an extended monologue of sorts given by one Elen/Helen/Helena/Eleanore, a personification of the city of [[London]], in the mid-fifteenth century. In section VI, "Keel, Ram, Stauros", the ship(s) we have been following explicitly becomes the World Ship, with the divine [[Logos (Christianity) | Logos]] for keel, and the [[Christian Cross | Cross]] (''stauros'') as a mast.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=156 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref> Finally, section VII, "Mabinog's Liturgy", concerns the Mediaeval Welsh celebration of [[Christmas Mass]], while section VIII, "Sherthursdaye and Venus Day", centres on [[The Last Supper]] and [[Crucifixion]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=160, 170 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref> While in this brief summary and indeed upon first reading<ref>{{cite news |last=Thorpe |first=Adam |title=Book of a Lifetime: ''The Anathemata'', by David Jones |date=2008-06-12 |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-the-anathemata-bydavid-jones-846083.html |work=The Independent |location=London |access-date=2017-09-05}}</ref> the poem's structure may seem chaotic, Thomas Dilworth has celebrated ''The Anathemata's'' wide-open form as unique in being formally whole. Dilworth notes that the structure produced by Jones' poetry is a "symmetrical multiple [[chiasmus]]," evident in Jones' manuscripts of the poem from its inception. He then provides the following illustration of its form:<br> ((((((((O)))))))),<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=176–78 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref>
in which the Eucharist--at center and circumference of this structure--is contained by and contains everything that the narrator daydreams about. Symbolically, the meaning of anything and everything has its ultimate expression in the sacrament, which confirms that meaning.<br>
==Allusions== "Anathemata" is Greek for "things set apart," or "special things." In lieu of any coherent plot, notes William Blissett, the eight sections of Jones' poem repeatedly revolve around the core history of man in Britain "as seen joyfully through Christian eyes as preparation of the Gospel and as continuation of Redemption in Christendom, with the Sacrifice of Calvary and the Mass as eternal centre."<ref>{{cite book |last=Blissett |first=William |date=1981 |chapter= Appendix A: 'In Medias Res,' [[University of Toronto Quarterly]] 24 (1955) |title=''The Long Conversation: A Memoir of David Jones'' |url=https://archive.org/details/longconversation0000blis |url-access=registration |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/longconversation0000blis/page/152 152]}}</ref> This revolving structure reflects Jones' belief that cultural artefacts of the past lived on within specific cultures in a continuous line of artistic interpretation.<ref> {{cite book |last1=Noakes |first1=Vivien |year=2007 |orig-year= |chapter= War Poetry, or the Poetry of War? Isaac Rosenberg, David Jones, Ivor Gurney |editor1-last=Kendall |editor1-first=Tim |title= The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhandbookbr00kend |url-access=limited |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhandbookbr00kend/page/n150 134] |isbn= }}</ref> As such, the text is densely allusive, and moves freely between [[Old English|old]]/[[middle English|middle]]/[[early modern English|early modern]]/[[modern English]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], and [[Latin]]. In this respect, it is similar to ''[[The Cantos]]'' of [[Ezra Pound]], or [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'', and can confuse and mislead the over-attentive but impatient reader.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blissett |first=William |date=1981 |title=''The Long Conversation: A Memoir of David Jones'' |url=https://archive.org/details/longconversation0000blis |url-access=registration |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/longconversation0000blis/page/2 2]}}</ref>
==Criticism== Thomas Dilworth has asserted that the reason that Jones' poetry is not widely read today is the "general neglect of ''The Anathemata.''"<ref>{{cite book |last=Dilworth |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=''Reading David Jones'' |location=Cardiff |publisher= University of Wales Press |page=116 |isbn=9780708320549 }}</ref> This is owing to his publisher for decades not listing it as poetry or Jones as a poet. Despite this, ''The Anathemata'' was well received by Jones' fellow poets. For example, [[W.H. Auden]] described it as "very probably the finest long poem written in English this century," and [[T.S. Eliot]] felt that it secured Jones' status – along with [[Ezra Pound]], and [[James Joyce]] – as a master of English [[Modernism]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Symmons |first=Michael |date=2002-09-28 |title=Poetry's Invisible Genius |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728870/Poetrys-invisible-genius.html |work=The Telegraph |location=Jersey |access-date=2017-09-04}}</ref> John Berryman of the ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'' gave the poem a glowing review, calling it "sinewy, inventive, sensitive, vigorous, devoted, not at all a crackpot or homiletic operation. (...) I will not call it parasitic, for it enjoys its own materials; but is it epiphytic? Here is where criticism of the brilliant thing must begin."<ref>{{cite news |last=Berryman |first=John |title=Review of ''The Anathemata'' |date=1963-07-21 |url= http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/jonesd/anathema.htm |work=The New York Times Book Review |location=New York |access-date=2017-09-05}}</ref> Finally, the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' also gave a favourable review, but also accurately forecasted Dilworth's lament that it would be ignored: the text "bristles with too many arcane allusions for a reader to grasp the meaning within its magic without a great deal of that 'mugging-up' which shatters the poetic illusion." <ref>{{cite news |last= |first= |title=Review of ''The Anathemata'' |date=1952-11-14 |url= http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/jonesd/anathema.htm |work=The Times Literary Supplement |location=London |access-date=2017-09-05}}</ref>
==External links== [https://archive.org/details/anathematafragme00jone/mode/2up Link to Internet Archive Text]
==References== {{reflist}}
{{David Jones (painter)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anathemata}} [[Category:Books by David Jones (artist-poet)]] [[Category:1952 poetry books]] [[Category:Epic poems in English]] [[Category:1952 poems]]