The Matter of Britain: David Jones’ Incarnational Geography

Abstract: This essay demonstrates the importance of David Jones’ poetic vision for an imaginative response to the environmental crisis. In “The Sleeping Lord” and other works, he articulates an “incarnational geography” that binds people to the land through history, myth, and ritual, ultimately effecting a humanization of the Earth inspiring both grief and prophetic hope. Further, in his ability to think and feel religiously across vast scales of time and space, and in his integration of technical scientific terminology with traditional mythic sources to shape a coherent and beautiful whole, David Jones provides an exemplary Christian ecopoetic for the Anthropocene.