P.K.1 Arya P. K. Rajiv C.

Krishnan LIT110
30 November 2018
“Each the Azazel to each”: War, Trauma, and Individuality in David Jones’s Jn Parenthesis
Abstract
David Jones’s In Parenthesis is an epic poem of the First World War. A semi-
autobiographical poem shares the experiences of First World War at Somme. The War and
violence had a profound impact on the author. The trauma of the War alienated the author
from society and he discovered him as a maker. /n Parenthesis depicts the process of
‘unmaking' occurred during the First World War in the 20" century. Jn Parenthesis
transforms the trauma of War into experiences. The larger purpose of the author was to
share the minutiae of individual trauma that was unknown to the world outside the
‘military camp’ and trenches. The incoherent writing style intended to reveal the emotional
distortion of soldiers. The slowness of the War is inevitable, the hyphenations and the
techniques adopted by Jones as a Modernist poet reveals the trauma of First World War as
the trauma of individual. The theme of the soldier as an individual in the poem subverts
genre of the poem into a mock-heroic poem. The portrayal of War as prose differentiates
poetry as a self-
referential language that draws attention to itself prose as not self -referential it is P.K. 2
hetero referential. This visualizes the landscape of a war field and the reader is forced
to think beyond what they read.
The objective perception and the Modernist techniques adopted by Jones like the
questioning of form, use of myths as a controlling device, self-reflexivity, and the
importance given to individuals depicted the universality of trauma in the world. Jones's
use of mythic, religious and literary allusion connects the never-ending continuous cycle of
violence and trauma. Works of Ezra Pound, War poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred
Owen are discussed in order to substantiate the impact
of the trauma that was created by modernity.
In this paper, I wish to explore how Modernist poets approach trauma especially the
trauma that was created by modernity in European countries. European modernity in
many ways leads to the First World War in terms of technology and other issues. The poets
who thought that modernity leads to the First World War portray the trauma of their
generation in Europe through their works. The First World War created a sense of
alienation among the people and created a scenario of extreme brutality. This alienation is
the trauma that was caused by the exhaustion of their human resources, financial,
intellectual, and spiritual capital. The poets and artists consider it as a duty to retrieve the
society from the trauma of the modern world. The Modernists used the ‘trauma’ in their
works to portray it and find a solution to the problem, thus art becomes a solution.
Through art, they demonstrated the cycle or the continuity of trauma in humanity. The
Modernist poets reveal the resemblance with the trauma of past and present. They found a
connection between the past and present beyond historical and personal boundaries. In
order to represent this connection, and to find a systematic and more organized way or
solution, poets used certain
techniques in their works. They questioned the form, used myths as a controlling P.K.3
device, shown self-reflexivity, and gave importance to individuals. One of the major
characteristics that differentiate the Modernists from Romantics is their objective
perception. The objective perception of the Modernist found and illustrated the
uncompromising hope of humanity through mythology and allusions. This paper intends to
explore how David Jones’s /n Parenthesis oscillates between the minutiae of the individual
soldier’s trauma and the mythic, religious and literary allusions that transpose private
experience upon transhistorical, transpersonal and repetitive cycles of violence and
intransigent hope portrayed through the techniques adopted by David
Jones.
Modernism is a philosophical movement that had a great impact on culture and art.
Modernism was the “earthquake in the arts that brought down much of the structure of
pre-twentieth-century practice in music painting, literature, and architecture (Barry 78).
During 1890 to 1840 countries like France, Germany, Italy, and Europe participated in the
movement. The art movements that followed this philosophical movement were Cubism,
Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism. Modernism was the rejection of traditional realism and
they favoured experimenting with forms, which is the main element in David Jones's Jn
Parenthesis. The artist rejected the fundamental perspectives and preferred geometrical
forms in painting and
architecture.
1910-1930 is considered as the period of high Modernism. T. S, Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra
Pound, Wallace Stevens, Wyndham Lewis, Virginia Woolf, and Gertrude Stein are some of
the important Modernist poets. Some of the key characteristics of Modernism are
subjective perspective, usage of the stream of consciousness
technique, experimentation with genres, self- reflexivity, fragmented narration, and P.K.4
the importance given to the ordinary. It was an era of innovation in literature as well
as in the different systems in a society especially the political and economic sectors.
The First World War was a complete “time of darkness” where no one was aware of what
was happening around them including the combatants and civilians. Freud "remarked that
he was standing too close to the War to see it properly. Writers found difficulties to express
their ideas after the tragic events. The First World War is the event that moulded the
history of the 20" century. The Modernist writings during the War and after the War
Influenced people’s perception, according to Stein it “created the completed recognition of
the contemporary compositions”. The War literature mostly dealt with the trauma of both
corporeal and civilians (Tate 1-2). The trauma of civilians or the individuals was unknown
during the War. The work of Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldiers (1918) and the
Journals like The Lancet was the first to bring out the trauma of individual which was
unknown to the world (Tate 1-11). In Parenthesis is Jones’s attempt to bring out the
trauma of soldier as a
civilian and as an individual.
The First World War of 1914-1918 took the life of more than 10 million people. The reason
for the War was unclear and it became more unclear because of the massive deaths. The
War shows the direct impact of industrial modernity and imperialism. Modernity that
started a much earlier altered society in different aspects. The characteristics of modernity
are the new changes in scientific reason and purposive reason. People start to think
rationally because of the influence of science. Massive industrial productions are the result
of new scientific inventions. In a way, science is the milestone that transformed society. The
transformations eventually lead to a reaction in Europe. The industrial production caused
the division of labour and
social divisiveness. This division helped the state and bureaucrats to exploit people. P.K.5
The meaninglessness of divisiveness is depicted through drawing the universality of
sufferings despite divisions all through history as if in In Parenthesis.
The sudden changes had a great impact on society. The urbanization made Romantics find
ways to escape from the newness, whereas the Modernists tried to accept the change. The
Modernists took what they needed and rejected what they don’t from modernity. They use
modernity as a tool to react against modernity. The Modernists use alienation in their
works in order to portray the alienation of their society. They became a part of scientific
reasons and they tried to replace science with
spirituality.
Like David Jones, Jean Toomer, Ezra Pound, and TS Eliot also show the trauma that affected
20"-century society. The poetic style of the Modernist Poets portrays the problems and
traumas of the 20" century. David Jones portrays the uncertainty of the world through
question marks and hyphenations. It shows the confused state of people. The variance
demonstrates through breakage of structure and general notions in writing. Questioning
the forms through such patterns draws the connection between modernity and its effect
over Europe. Modernity is the trauma itself that forces the Modernist to write about the
trauma of a generation. The massive
death and other crises are the effects of modernity.
The same techniques used in /n Parenthesis can be seen in the works of Ezra Pound. Ezra
Pound’s Cantos and Hugh Selwyn Mauberly deal with the extreme trauma of society. It
explains similar experiences of the trauma from mythological tales and classics as a
controlling device. The Cantos show the complex emotions of an alienated individual. It
depicts the experience of an individual precisely. The
portrayal of individuals from mythology and Homer’s and Dante’s works shows the P.K.6
similar experiences faced by modern people. Like Odysseus, people strain to find a solution
for the suffering. Pound draws the transhistorical and transpersonal element through
Odysseus's myth. Odysseus represents the soldier and people who struggle to escape from
the trauma of War [shipwreck]. The unshakable faith and hope of Odysseus is the universal
trait of human being that Jones also explains in Jn Parenthesis. The comparison of the
modern world with the shipwreck in “Canto 1” conveys this message to the masses.
Constant invocation of God in the work is a technique to instill hope in the people. The
scientific reason and purposive reason destroyed spirituality. The work is an attempt to
bring back the concept of God and give people a hope to live. The soul and mortal body both
are affected by the modern world. The work shows exhausted s human being and essence
of life start to fall apart
due to modernity.
The Mythological tales and classics are used as a tool to channel the thoughts of people
affected by trauma in Europe. It is used to show the reality and also to find a solution to the
problem. The poem Hugh Selwyn Mauberly refers to “Capaneus”’: “Capaneus: trout for
factitious bait. . . (Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Personae 197). Capaneus' was a young
man who went to the War. He was a Greek hero who embodies immense strength and
body. He was an outstanding warrior. The term ‘warrior’ is emphasized because Europe
needs warriors to fight, and bleed for their countries. We can compare the fate of Capaneus
with the fate of soldiers. Soldiers were used as the “bait” for their enemies. They never
recognized as real rather they
were ‘created’ for Europe. The poem portrays the War hysteria to show the
“In The Seven against Thebes, Aeschylus’s tragedy Capaneus go to war and swore
that he would sack the without God Zeus and was struck dead with a thunderbolt. P.K. 7
transformation of the people. It is the stress that turned out as this urge for War even after
being aware of all the consequences and pain, and it changed the life of the people. The
trauma of the War evolved into hysteria. It made people believe that the only way to get out
from the trap is ‘War’. The parents send their sons to War in hope of finding solutions for
suffering. It is different from the trauma that the soldiers went
through was much harsher than that of the common people.
The reference terms like “Circe’s hair and “Sirens songs” from Homer’s Odysseus reminds
us of Cantos. Pound considers the situation of the 20th century as equal to Odysseus who
trapped in the shipwreck. Circes is important as she is the goddess one who would help
Odysseus to reach home: “Bore us out onward with bellying canvas, / Circe’s this craft the
trim-coifed goddess" (Pound 3). The ‘Sirens song’ is songs of beautiful women who sit on a
rock and sings. The tune of the song tempts and tricks the sailors to sail into the rocks.
Pound here says about the possibilities of complete destruction. He warns that if people
don’t go back to a level of change that would help them to live in a more peaceful and
organized way. The stories were techniques to keep the pace between past and continuity
between past
and present.
Pound also mentions the "usury" or the bankers and money lenders: “usury age-old and
age-thick / and liars in public places ... / Daring as never before, wastage as never before”
(Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Personae 200). It is the wastage of money referring
here. According to Pound, it is equal to sin. It shows how the Modernist era needs a chance
to survive from the trauma of the modern world. During the War, the economic experience
was destructed at its peak level. 1913- 1921 Europe went through the worst economic
decline because of the huge
War expense. The growth of income reduced as a whole and even the rebound didn't P.K.8
work to rebuild the capital destruction. Pound's opposition against usury shows his own
self as an ‘individual’. Here he represents a particular section of society, the Fascist in the
modern world. Pound said that the only people got benefited by War is the usury or the
International banks and money lenders. According to Pound, it was the issue of money and
wealth that united the Allies in the First World War to fight
against Germany:
Gold. Nothing else uniting the three governments, England, Russia, United States of
America. That is the interest—gold, usury, debt, monopoly, class interest, and possibly
gross indifference and contempt for humanity.
(“#13: March 2, 1942 - ‘NAPOLEON, ETC”)
In poem V of Hugh Selwyn Mauberly, the youth have died “For an old bitch gone in the
teeth, / For a botched civilization / ... / For two gross of broken statues, / For a few
thousand battered books” (Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, Personae 200). The War
made the life to lose its worth. People became comrades for statues and books that praised
their sacrifice. Their life was not valuable for civilization. Through these lines, he says that
England doesn't deserve somebody to die for the
country. This shows Pound’s outrage towards World War I.
The “Cantos X1V” comes under the section of ‘Hell’ in Cantos. The base of this canto is
structured upon Dante's Divine Comedy’s Inferno. The journey of Dante through hell was
guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In /nferno, a particular session "Circle VII” deals
with different kinds of punishment in hell that devil gives us for contempt. Pound
impersonate as Dante who travels through the hell in this Cantos. The journey in Cantos
shows the political, social and economic problems and
the misdeeds of the Society during 20" century First World War. The wall-street P.K.9
crash and exploiters are shown through the terms like “usury”. Cantos give traces of
the First World War, the trauma of their generation.
Pound never went to War but he has memories related to the War. His friends lost their
lives in the War which was fought for the country. This loss influenced him to draw themes
of War in his writings. His friends Gaudier Breska and T. E. Hulme and Wyndham Lewis
were great artist and writers. Pound has a book on Gaudier
Breska Gaudier-Brzeska: A Memoir.
Ezra Pound’s Radio Broadcasts from Italy during World War II reveals his perspective
about War. Pound believed that “this war on youth--on a generation”. The cause of the War
is “age of the chief war pimps”. Pound opposed to the idea of Americans participating in the
War for Europe. When Pearl Harbour gave put forth the idea of American men should
march off to War Pound added that "I do not want my compatriots from the ages of 20 to
40 to go get slaughtered to keep up the Sassoon and other British Jew rackets in Singapore
and in Shanghai. That is not my idea of American patriotism” ( “#13: March 2, 1942 -
“NAPOLEON, ETC”). Thus show how he sees War as slaughtering field where nation kills
their own resource the ‘human’.
Pound once said that ‘hell’ is a portrait of contemporary England. The hell functions as a
metaphor for England. The irony is that devil in hell punishes one who does misdeeds, but
the War punishes innocents. Pound uses the idea of “hell” as a way to revive the faith in God
among people. He instils a fear for ‘punishment’ which
we have to face afterlife as per the myths.
Europe is the hell in the context of atrocity happened in the War. The
bloodsheds and chaotic situation made Europe none less than a hell. The poem starts P. K.
10
with darkness, and the narrator says that he came to a place mute of all light. The darkness
all around him is the First World War that pushed him into the trauma. It alienated
individuals from their own land. The narrator is in one place and calls it as
another shows the paradox in the trauma of a society.
The corrupted politicians, bankers and media in the poem explain how the devil punishes
sinful people in hell. The usurers are the money lenders and bankers, according to /nferno
devil punishes them in the seventh circle “lashing them with Steel wires” (Pound Cantos
61). The War, corruption and fake moralities of politicians are all by Products of Capitalism.
Offensive language and scatological contents in Cantos show Pound’s extreme contempt
toward them. Pound considered them as filthy creatures: “Profiteers drinking blood
sweetened with sh-t. The image of a mother sending her daughter to “bed with
decrepitude” and “sows eating their litters” shows the extreme economic condition.
Poverty has made people do anything for their survival. The psychological trauma they had
faced is clearly depicted in the
poem.
The line “pleasures of the sense” (Pound Cantos 61) refers to art which was believed as a
tool to overcome the trauma. Pound says that bad writings destroy society and an only
good one could save humanity. He was an “élitist who looked upon art as a real artist.
According to his opinion, intellectual filth possesses the power to poison the whole race of
humanity. Pound questions the attempt of bad works to replace real art. The clause the
“Clatter of presses” is the War between two powers. It also shows how newspapers spread
filth during the War. The images of
mourning like hen-yard show the pain: P.K.11
"The soil a decrepitude, the ooze full of morsels, lost contour,
erosions"
The soil became unable to hold us because it is soaked with blood “The soil living pus, full
of vermin
Dead maggots begetting live baggots”. (Pound Cantos 61)
This line Gives the image of a brutal post War field. The language, theme and the whole
concept is traumatic though. These lines show the extreme trauma. Land soaked with the
blood of innocents. The bombardments killed a massive amount of people with one
explosion. This left only rotten dead bodies on land. The phrase "soil
living pus” states that the earth is wounded by the brutal war.
Jones is way too modern in his writings and thoughts than his Victorian upbringing after
the First World War. Whereas Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon followed traditional poetics.
They also served army during the Wartime and Jones served "twice as long as Siegfried
Sassoon", "more than twice as long as Wilfred Owen" and Wyndham Lewis.*(Dilworth 14)
Sassoon’s poems impart the same emotions as in Jones’s. He is a man who was wounded in
combat in 1917 and
diagnosed with shell shock, so his poems are realistic and the experiences are real.
Wilfred Owens poem “Wild with All Regrets” is dedicated to Siegfried Sassoon whom he
considered as his mentor. Unlike Jones, the traditionalist
Sassoon's poems have rhyme schemes but can find hyphenations against this
• Among these Jones was more onerous, though less dangerous, than that of
most other war writers, who were junior officers. P. K. 12
traditionalism. This shows that even though he tries to be a traditionalist his subconscious
diagnosed with the trauma reflects in his poetry. The poem reflects his regret of joining the
army and mourn for the life that once he denied. A soldier is the one who rebels against
himself: “My arms mutinied against me — brutes!” (Owen, “Wild with All Regrets”, Winter
346) .The speaker accepts that they are the reason behind their suffering. They hated to
“grow dead old” but the War made them realize that “not to live old seems awful” (Owen,
“Wild with All Regrets”, Winter 346). The War and family juxtapose in the poetry. The
family is the essence of an individual, but men participated in the War and denied the life of
an ordinary man. They hated to become an ordinary man, but at the end realized that
everyone is ordinary. It is the
fate that made them soldiers.
Young soldiers were not even sure that they will return home safely. In fact, even if they did
it would be half dead or mentally ill. The family is just a dream for them while living in piles
of mutilated dead bodies. The lines "My boyhood with my boys, and teach ‘em
hitting/shooting and hunting" shows a dream to be a good father and it is ironic in tone
when he adds "all the arts of hurting". The soldier is the one who hunts down, shoot and kill
their enemies. It would be scary if they fail as a father. God is the only hope for survival and
he invokes God for their life: “God! For just two years / To help myself to this good air of
yours!” The poet counted each and every minute in his life in trenches. The line “I’ve five
minutes” suggests how he
values each minute in his life (Owen, “Wild with All Regrets, Winter 346-347).
Sassoon’s poems of War were angry in tone and compassionate. In the poem “The General”
he talks about death with an ababccc rhyme scheme. The life of a soldier can be lost within
a week time: "When we met him last week on our way to
the line. Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ‘em dead"(Sassoon 345). Life has P. K. 13
no guaranty and it is priceless for soldiers. The term "smile" is used to mock the general
because the smile can't save lives and it is a fake smile. He shows how generals are in the
safe zone who only “plan of attack” and let other soldiers die as scapegoats. The same
situation can be seen in Jn Parenthesis as well. The trench life is vividly portrayed in
another poem “The Redeemer’. Anyone who helps in the trenches seems to be “God” or
redeemer in the middle of “bullet songs’ and “droning
shells burst with a hollow bang” .(Sassoon 345)
David Jones’s Jn Parenthesis is in prose form with a little verse. It is an autobiographical
work about his experiences in the Somme Offensive of 1916. The War killed about 3,993
Welsh Soldiers. David Jones fought in this War and it is his experience that he portrays
through this poem. It is an autobiographical poem, and he himself metamorphoses into
Private Ball. T. S. Eliot in his introduction to Jn Parenthesis wrote, “On reading the book the
typescript. I was deeply moved. I then regarded it, and still regard it, as a work of
genius.”’(Jones vii) The work is all about real life, and it is not an imaginary War experience
fiction. To address modern World Jones chose prose. He considered it as a way to adapt to
the contemporary world. David Jones's Alter ego "Private Ball" represents every individual
in Europe. It shows the status of the individual in modern society and he represents each
individual in Europe. Private Ball exhibits both past and present and becomes a
symbol that connects history and personal experiences in Europe.
Poetry is self- referential language that draws attention to itself prose is not self -referential
it’s hetero referential. Here prose refers to the First World War and War is prose it does not
verse. It is a reality that connects to real life. In the poem, Jones deals with real World and
real events in the First World War. The War deals
with the individual and the experiences of individuals are the real trauma. In one of P. K. 14
his essay titled "Welsh Poetry," Jones states that in Welsh verse "sound and sense were
regarded as having parity so that the verse structure and meaning of the words used in
making that structure were regarded as forming one indissoluble unity"( Thomas 179). We
could see Jones's experimenting with this principle in prose in Jn
Parenthesis. The prose has a certain rhythm like a ballad or the marching of soldiers.
The rhythm of orders and shouting at the beginning of the poem is shown
dramatically. It is in the form of a conversation:
‘49 Wyatt, 01549,
Coming Seargent.
Pick’ em up, pick’ em up — I'll stalk within yer chamber Private Leg...sick
Private Ball...absent.
‘01 Ball, ‘01 Ball, Ball of No. 1.
Where’s Ball. 25201 Ball — you corporal,
Ball of your section. (Jones 1)
The loss of individuality is shown through a simple conversation. Soldiers lose their
identity in the War field they become mere numbers.
Omniscient narration is a characteristic of realism. In the poem, the narrator can be seen in
the omniscient viewpoint. The narrator explains even the tiny details like the clinking and
jostling of Ball's water cans. Then he talks about the Lance-
Corporal Lewis talking the position of the omniscient narrator:
Temporary unpaid Lance-Corporal Aneirin Merrddyn Lewis had somewhere in his Welsh
depths a remembrance
of the nature of man, of how lance-corporal’s stripe is but
held vicariously and from on high. . . . Jones 2) P.K.15
Determining the artistic function of language, "poetry is the language of emotions and
assumes its particular rhythmic and ordered from out of a need to organize the chaos that
is feeling"( Gemmil 324). Whereas prose "prose is the language of thought and is the
natural unordered expression of ideas"(Gemmil 324).
It uses common speech and the stream of consciousness to represent the language that was
once alive through soldiers. The history and the poem go hand in hand with a stream of
consciousness technique. The sound of water while he moves is described in the poem; "the
noise of liquid / shaken in small vessel by regular jogging movement, / a certain clinking
ending in a shuffling of the feet"(Jones 1). This kind of minute detail slows the pace of
poetry, which gives more realistic experiences. It also
foreshadows the brutality in the succeeding chapters.
The use of religious myths gives a “prophetic significance” which is a technique he uses to
make an impact on people’s thought process. The myths are also something that warns the
readers about the process the soldiers are going to enter the War. Mars is the War God who
was originally originated as a fertility God. The representation of life-giving God against the
"technological weapons" which caused
destructions during War is profoundly ironic. (Vincent B Sherry 376) The lines:
Out of the vortex, rifling the air it came-bright, brass-shod, Pandoran; with all-filling
screaming crescendo's up-piling snapt. The universal world, breath held, one-half sec- ond,
a bludgeoned stillness. Then the pent violence released a consummation of all burst-ings
out; all sudden up-rendings and rivings-through-all taking-out of vents-all barrier-
breaking- all unmaking. Pernitric begetting-the dissolving and split-
ting of solid things... Behind 'E' Battery, fifty yards down the P. K. 16
road, a great many mangolds, uprooted, pulped, congealed with chemical earth, spattered
and made slippery the rigid boards leading to the emplacement. The sap of vegetables
slobbered the
spotless breech-block of No. 3 gun. (Jones 24)
“Pernitric begetting” refers to the myth of Mars. It is a compound of chemical used in
fertilizers and explosives. Explosives are produced on a large scale during the War. Mars is
being portrayed as a power of both destruction and regeneration. Fertilizers are used for
regeneration where explosives to kill a mass amount of people. The term “begetting” and
unmaking refers to this. The unmaking of a civilization is seen here. The total destruction
also mocks the heroic image of Mars the God of War. The term “Pandoran” refers to the
myth of Pandora, the girl who opened an unknown box which contained sickness, death,
and evil which was later unleashed into the world. It was her lack of self- control that leads
to devastations. Jones believed that scientific technology is a Pandora box and the human
opened it to destroy the mankind in the First World War. In the /n Parenthesis, David Jones
uses terms that are related to pagan religion and rituals. He shows that soldiers are mere
sacrificial goats like the ritual of “scapegoat” in paganism. The James George Frazer in his
The Golden Bough
explains the ritual in general and in detail:
“THUS far we have dealt with that class of the general expulsion of evils which I have called
direct or immediate. In this class, the evils are invisible, at least to common eyes, and the
mode of deliverance consists for the most part in beating the empty air and raising such a
hubbub as may scare
the mischievous spirits and put them to flight. It remains to illustrate the P.K.17
second class of expulsions, in which the evil influences are embodied in a visible form or
are at least supposed to be loaded upon a material medium, which acts as a vehicle to draw
them off from the people, village, or town.
(Frazer 756)
The line “each the Azazel to each other, other daemon drawn to other” (Jones 70) shows
that each soldier in the platoons is sacrificial goats for the country. It is for the sin of their
country they became the Azazel one who carries the sin for the whole society. Soldiers are
the scapegoats who carry the sin of the country. They are considered as heroes and given
divine position as protector and slain as a sacrifice: banishing evils are believed to be
transferred to a god who is afterwards slain” (Frazer
754). In the ritual:
The divine character of the animal or man is forgotten, and he comes to be regarded merely
as an ordinary victim. This is especially likely to be the case when it is a divine man who is
killed. For when a nation becomes civilized, if it does not drop human sacrifices altogether,
it at least selects as victims only such wretches as would be put to death at any rate. Thus
the killing of a god may sometimes come to be
confounded with the execution of a criminal" (Frazer 754).
The continuous references to stories of Knights are because soldiers impersonate as
knights. They not only guard nation but also their friends which have been a continuous
practice since mankind born. This shares the similar emotional
experiences in history and present.
Questioning of form is another technique of the Modernist poets to portray
the trauma of society. Jn Parenthesis questions the form in every possible aspect. It P. K. 18
shares the experiences of people and their life during the period of War. The trauma
altered poetry and art along with the society, science, and innovation had a great impact on
the process. The poem represents problems of innovation. The artists attempted to
construct poems as if machines because machines need different parts to work as a whole.
The Modernist treated poetry as if machines and experimented with the forms. The
complexity of machines is represented through the new altered art and poetry. The
Modernist artists observed complexities in the life during the War and the industrial era
from the society and made it as a whole but in a fragmented way through art. The change in
the conventional writings expresses the distorted and complex emotions rather than
explaining the experiences. The distortion is started to reflect in the poetry through the
movements like Expressionism and Dadaism. This had a great impact on the artistic
convention
during the Modernist period.
Jones might be trying to find a way to express the emotions through different
genres because of the complexities of War and the multiple emotions of soldiers.
The poet continuously separates the words into two in each line. Words like "movement",
"interminable", itself", "Pervade", "commander", "camp warden" "corrugated", and
"unexpected". The terms itself reflect the trauma of the age, the terms used like "
interminable" means endless and it tries to explain the endlessness of the situation and
their fear, "pervade" means to spread through refers to the relentless War perceived
everywhere. The term "corrugated" reflects the image of soldiers who stay together to
strengthen their defense system to protect the people. The poet separates the words to
show that even though the soldiers try to beat the
situation they are confused about everything. For instance: "hard wool of grey
govern- / ment socks". This portrays the ruptured government. All these distorted P. K. 19
speeches resonate the disrupted psyche of the soldiers in the poem. The fragmented words
show the fragmented experiences.
David Jones constantly uses em dashes. Jones used about seven em dashes in one page of
poetry which commonly used in informal writing. These em dashes work as a string to
connect the experiences of War as a collage . Breakages in between the lines are the
fragmented thoughts of soldiers. The poet starts to say something and eventually jumps
into something different. The usage of em dashes might be a technique to personalize the
poetry, to channelize the strong emotions to the readers. The disruptive forms in the syntax
subtly present violence. The reader can find traces of expressionism in this poetry. Jones
represents the world from a personal perspective and changed the forms of ‘artistic
conventions’. It was to create an intense emotional effect, in order to evoke moods and
ideas in the poem. After Jones left the army in 1916, he lived in a village in Welsh to write
poetry about his War experience. In Ditchling, he inspired by Eric Gill famous artist and
sculpture. He lived with sculptures and eventually learned the art of sculpture. This
influence reflects in his writing. The hyphenations, question marks and his
experimentation with language is an attempt to shape the words or the poem, as an
embodiment of the
First World War.
The poetry gives importance to emotional experiences rather than physical reality. The
usage of metaphor works in the same way because Jones never directly
talks about guns, weapons, and atrocities.
The line, “The rain increases with light and the weight increases with the rain.” (Jones 5)
The thought or fear of what would happen in the future while marching to a seaport in the
rain could have made them imagine the rain as ‘rain of
bullets’. The “weight” of the coat over their body increased with the rain. It also P. K. 20
indicates the weight of a body that increases with the metal bullets. The effect of cold is
compared to the pain of bullet penetrating into the body. Jones’s techniques in the poem
reflect a connection towards expressionism. He tries to explain every emotion that soldiers
go through. The young men who fought in the War were alienated from their family, society
and even ‘self’. Soldiers were alienated from
their names and made as a part of some alphabets like “B” and “A” (Jones 5).
The poem talks about the expedition of Soldiers to overseas. The first part of the poem
describes the difficulty during the march. The “Ball” is David Jones’s Alter ego. David Jones
explains their life with parades, living in the rain without shelter, food and proper toilet
facilities. The trauma of the soldiers was similar to the "Cold" that had the power to kill
them without a wound. The line “women in deep black”(Jones 9) refers ‘death’ as wearing
black indicates mourning in the western context. This suggests the fear of death in the
future and it creates the image of their mother or wife mourning for their death. Soldiers
were treated like cattle: “on the same day they entrained in cattle trucks” (Jones 9) they
were carried to the War field just as butchers carry their cattle. The first part of the poem
Jn Parenthesis ends with the return of soldiers being crippled, wounded and dead, the rest
of the soldiers were introduced to a new world. A "new world" of judgements, rejection,
and self-hatred
this was the phase of extreme trauma in the life of a soldier in the 20" century.
The theme of ‘mindless industrialized death’ is reflected from the very title of the poem
“The Many Men So Beautiful". People were running before ‘men’ to make them participate
in the ‘death trap' the First World War. It was not because of their valour and courage, but
to increase the number of men. The “Many Men” in the title refers to this particular hysteria
of recruiting young men as much as possible for
the First World War in 20"-century society. P.K. 21
The value of a human is reduced into nothing and youngsters were used as mere weapons
for the ‘state’. State kills its own resource persons in the name War. The War always brings
unexpected Death it doesn’t give any choice and choose its
prey randomly. So elements of Dadaism can also be found in this poetry.
David Jones's Expressionist approach is visible he is not explaining the physical awry and
experiences. Instead, he portrays the emotions and psychological trauma of the country. He
is explaining the explosion that turned their land into dust. The hyphenation expresses
multiple thoughts and emotions. The shock is portrayed through ‘commas’. The poet is
trying to list out everything around him using commas, and it gives an image of trigger
hiccups due to the shock or the trauma. Johns “stood alone on the stones” (Jones 24) John
Ball is the one who stood alone, but ‘he’ stands for each distinctive individual. The
bombardment toppled the “mess-tin” that indicates the famine and poverty followed by the
First World War. Even the basic needs of the society were seized by the technology. The
bomb came like a whirl as bright as the "brass-shod. . . "(Jones 24). Jones describes this as a
process of "unmaking", "dissolving and splitting of solid things". The poet mocks
meaninglessness of the social strata existed, and there was nothing left at all because of
"barriers breaking". There is a continuous repetition of "all". The poet uses around six ‘all'
in the last stanza. It might be referring to his fear of complete destruction of everything.
The survival of Jhon Ball is the survival of the whole of Europe. The "chemical earth” stands
as a monument for Wars in the whole world. The "sap of vegetables slobbered the spotless
breech-block of No. 3 gun” ( Jones 24). The "vegetables" are soldiers who are devastated
and left with no feelings after the shock. They "slobbered" bullets from their rifles with
excessive eagerness because (of the
‘shell shock' P.K. 22
The bomb attacks or bombardments are always unexpected. It will bring massive
devastations and destruction, but bombardments evolved into a normal experience of
Europe after the innovation of grenades. Jones is a man who experienced all devastations
from its origin to end. The trauma of the destruction itself
provoked David Jones to write about ‘all’ distortions in the poem /n Parenthesis.
David Jones’s portrays impersonality of soldiers in trenches in part 4 of Jn Parenthesis.
King Pellam’s Launde concerned with a usual day in the life of platoons in the trenches.
Soldier’s life from the “sorrowed” day to the “blind night” (Jones 50) in the trenches is
described in the poem. The weary duty, violence and extreme boredom devastate the
human essence of soldiers. The mysterious existence of soldiers haunts their emotions and
questions the purpose of life. The allusion in the poem elevates its theme into another
realm. It tries to define the purpose of the life of soldiers through historical scriptures and
Welsh medieval works. Soldiers who live in the trenches are unaware of their purpose or
meaning of their existence in the world and become the ‘sacrificial lamb' for others. This
realization accompanied by extreme
trauma leads the soldiers to an existential crisis.
Soldiers who "sat silent"(Jones 70) picture the stillness and the sudden silence affected the
modern world after the First World War. The complex emotions derived from the loss of
lives haunt the soldiers and they sit silently because of the strangeness and fear. The
question of his existence haunted every single soldier and thus David Jones calls them
"friends" the companions in suffering. The people of a different race all of a sudden united
for the War because of the common fear and revenge against their enemies. This cultural
differences and prejudices are also questioned by the ‘silence’. The subjective perspective
of soldiers represents the
subjective world after the First World War (Jones 70). P. K. 23
The reflection of grey and the dull modern world through the term "leaden water" (Jones
70) portrays life after the War. Also, it represents the distortion of emotional and the
metaphysical world. The reality turns into an abstract whilst the world becomes ‘dull’. This
is ‘mirrored’ in the spiritless nature of people after recurrent emotional breakdown and the
‘darkness' that spread in the country. The explosions change the atmosphere as well as the
psyche of people. It destroys even the slightest hope left in people. The "water" shows the
fluidity and individuality in emotions. Emotions are like water, it is shapeless and it
acquires only the shape of the vessel. Similarly, the War and modern world reshapes
people’s emotions with each experience. The poem depicts the life and psychological
trauma of modern people through the experience of soldiers left alone in a group of strange
people. The isolation felt when surrounded by millions of people clearly illustrates the
trauma in
the modern world.
The expression, "Each bayonet-brightness" ironically reflects the weir and tier in the life of
soldiers when the weapons keep shining. The lack of food, cloth, and water doesn't resist
them from cleaning their weapons. According, to soldiers their existence relies upon these
weapons rather than food and clothes. The "empty sand- bag shielded" is the emptiness of a
soldier's life and their existence becomes mysterious as they shield with nothing inside and
out. Their emptiness of self and the ‘nakedness' of the body shows the meaninglessness of
their existence. The "hessian coverings" is used to make sandbags for the shield, but it also
becomes the shield from the extreme cold. It becomes their ‘universal covering’ for all
needs. Jones uses shows how a ‘simple sack' cloth becomes someone's universe. It shows
how people
grab a ray of hope to find meaning for their lives in the modern world (Jones 70). P. K. 24
The poem shows how barbarous soldiers became in the War field. The death song in the
beginning “He shall die” (Jones 103) the song about the toreador shows the fierceness of
soldiers. The War becomes the sport of ‘bullfighting’. The soldiers earn death for their duty
without any complaints. Nationalism played an important
role in the betrayal of soldiers during the War.
The trauma of soldiers over their fear of death portrayed through the reference “O
my’’(Jones 71) from the song J don’t want to be a Soldier. The showed their conscious
regret of fighting in the War through songs. The War is also a profit and loss business in the
context of the poem. The search for ‘young’, ‘perfect’ and always ‘newer ones’ is visible
from the first part of the poem itself. The selections are sometimes for a perfect soldier and
sometimes for selfish advantage. The exploitation
of soldiers is visible:
She said that the war was lucrative, and chid him feed the fowl, and smoothed her pinafore:
sometimes the Siege Artil-
lery came in during the morning if there wasn't a shoot on. (Jones 106)
The passage explains the horror of War and the trauma of soldiers.
They came out to rest after the usual spell. The raid had been quite successful; an
identification had been secured of the regiment opposite, and one wounded prisoner, who
died on his way down; '75 Thomas, and another were missing; Mr Rhys and the new
sergeant were left on the wire; you could
see them plainly, hung like rag-merchants' stock, when the P.K. 25
the light was favourable; but on the second night after, Mr Jen- kins's patrol watched his
bearers lift them beyond their para- pets. (Jones 106)
The death rate increases as they moved forward. Most of the soldiers were left to die on the
wires in the trenches. The phrase "rag-merchants' stocks"(Jones 106) is a metaphor for the
value of soldiers in the War. It also acts as prophetic signs to soldiers. A soldier who
witnesses their friends hanged like rags on the coiled wires passes through the extreme
horror and the trauma. This kind of death might happen to anyone in the platoons. The
realization made them shiver in fear. Each death is like the prophecy of their future. It leads
to the death of many soldiers sue to anxiety half way of the march in France.
The Modernist gives more importance to the individual. Jn Parenthesis basically focuses on
the life of a soldier and his experiences. Nationalism is an important trait of an individual,
especially during the First World War.
The confusion and the reflexivity resulting from the First World War created an existential
crisis in people’s mind. Thus the poem embodies the essence of the
trauma in every part of it.
The poem "Starlight Order" (Jones 27) diffusely hints about the life of a soldier. "Starlight"
is a term used to describe someone perfect. "Order" is referring to their perfect order
during their march to trenches. Life evolved as a ‘perfect march' for soldiers during the
First World War. The poet's desire for a perfect society conveyed through the title, but
Jones ironically mocks ‘perfection' in the context of War. The pressure of failing is
overwhelming and the impact of the experience emotionally unstable the victims. The
panic attacks and shell-shocks are the after effects of this
unstable emotion. The pressure of soldiers to be a “perfect hero' among the battalion P. K.
26
and for the country made them confused because they must face the brutal War and
also their mixed emotions.
The dual emotions and the extreme complex experiences are the reasons for the trauma
among the soldiers. Soldiers lead an ungracious way of life and it turned them into "tin
soldiers, toy soldiers". The role of a mere toy in the hands of the supreme authorities of the
country alienated them from everything. The rain wearied the soldiers and physically
tormented them without proper facilities to warmth their body: “They moved rather as
grave workmen than as soldiers from their billets’ brief
shelter (Jones 27). At the ending of the day, unrested:
Bodies, wearied from the morning,
Troubled in their minds frail bodies loaded overmuch. (Jones 27)
Through the historical reference to the battle of Catraeth, elegy poems "Y Gododdin" and
the novel "Mr.Sponge’s Sporting Tour’’, David Jones sarcastically mocks the heroes fighting
primarily for glory. Jones is trying to devalue the act of heroism through the references.
David Jones was against Heroization. He was a man who experienced the War and lives of
soldiers, and he remembers it as nightmare all over the World. He believed that soldiers are
mere individuals and not superhumans, in a way each individual are soldiers. All these tales
convey brutal experiences in War. In /n Parenthesis the seriousness of the War and the
suffering of the soldiers portray the reality rather than some superhuman fiction.
The importance of reference from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” becomes relevant
after the phase of slaughtering. David Jones wants to convey that a soldier’s life is similar to
the life of the “Ancient Mariner” who lived rest of his life in regret trying to atone for his sin
through sufferings and humility: “like through galssy walls that slowly turn they rise and P.
K. 27
fracture — for this fog-smoke wraith they cast a dismal sheen” (Jones 52). Majority of the
soldiers go through a Posttraumatic stress disorder along with repentance. The reference
to Coleridge’s poem Christabel slightly hints us about the sexual assaults encountered by
the soldiers as in the poem. The reference to Bugler’s the First Communion in the title
“Starlight order” also arise the question of sexual needs of soldiers during the War and the
assaults faced
by the soldiers.
Life is miserable in trenches soldiers to fight with the stench of their own latrines and rats.
People in the battalion trapped and killed about 500 rats per month. These rats would have
caused severe diseases along with the unhygienic situation in trenches. Jones mentions
about the rats in the poem and how they invaded their “Paradise”. Rats “redeem the time of
our un charity” because they feed on people while they are asleep. The phrase “our
corruption” refers to food that they steal from superiors. The rats can be seen as some
power invades the space of soldiers that created revulsion in soldiers. The rat can be seen
as the symbol of War that was
feeding on soldiers in their own land. (Jones 54)
The horror of War is shown when Ball is left alone in the War field injured and devastated.
When Private Ball fell down when hit by bullets he was abandoned to wait for the "stret-
cher-bear-errs!". (Jones It is the real-life experience of Jones. He said that he crawled after
being left by a friend who helped and carried him. Jones crawled “touching bodies and body
parts” till he has found by the stretcher bearers. The lines show the mechanism of War;
“but many men do you suppose could bear away a third / Of us: / Lie still under the oak”
(Jones 187). This shows how the number of men matters during the War. The officials are
only concerned about the number to be its death rate or a number of people alive. The
worth of a
soldier is his strength, War never thought humanity worth more than strength. P.K. 28
The War and violence pitched in the Modernist poetry come from the aggression and
hopelessness of the society. Jn Parenthesis shows the life of a soldier in “parenthesis”. The
title represents the sense of being trapped, the trap of the First
World War caused by modernity.
The First World War fragmented society in various aspects. Jones uses the device of
fragmentation to represent the trauma in a chaotic world. It was really an "unmaking" of a
civilization. The total destruction mocks the conventions and War heroes. The loss of
individuality in the fragmented distorted society is illustrated through the story of am
"individual" soldier. Soldier represents a group of people destined to die for the sin of
others since he represents the whole ‘warriors' of history he loses his individuality.
Soldier's identity and individuality is lost in the process of sacrifice and merges with the
name "God". This
• . «3 ‘ : . transposes private experience of a soldier” upon trans-historical and
transpersonal experience.
The religious connotation of the soldier as Christ in the context of Jn Parenthesis connects
the trauma of past with the present. Each soldier becomes "Azazel" to each other, a
scapegoat that sacrifices one's life for each other. Soldier and Christ die for the future of
other as a sacrifice carrying the sin of others and illustrate the repetitive cycle of violence.
These mythic, religious and literary allusion helps to represent Death of each soldier is a
hope for the people in the modern world. The image of brutal War fields and the dead
bodies reminds graveyard. Being soldiers was not a choice but it was fate. Jn Parenthesis
depicts soldier as the fate of the individual and the fate of modernity. Thus the individual in
the poem conjoins the universality of trauma created by modernity in 20" century
European Countries. It is not just the trauma of a soldier but the trauma of a society, which
oscillates between individual trauma
and the trauma of the whole humanity.
• Private Ball in the poem Jn Parenthesis P. K. 29
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