David Jones

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1929, Print, The British Library, London; C.100.k.20., ©️ Trustees of the Estate of David Jones; Photo: ©️ The British Library Board (C.100.k.20., p.17)

‘Things that belong to salvation’

Commentary by Hilary Davies

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After the harsh admonition of the opening verses, the author of Hebrews begins to modulate his argument: ‘For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love you showed for his sake’ (6:10). A supreme example of such divine remembrance is explored in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s masterpiece, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

When David Jones undertook in late 1927 to illustrate this poem, he was already regarded as one of Britain’s foremost watercolourists and wood engravers (Dilworth 2017: 122; Miles & Shiel 1995: 78). But Jones had never attempted copper engraving before; this determined his decision to concentrate on ‘simple incised lines reinforced ... by cross-hatched areas’ (Dilworth 2005: 13). His focus on stark simplicity to suggest rich layers of meaning perfectly mirrors the shimmering language and deceptively ballad-like prosody of Coleridge’s poem. ‘Engraving 5’ depicts the Mariner, albatross slung from his neck. His eyes are dead, pupil-less; his soul is in agony, for whenever he has tried to pray, a travesty falls from his lips, ‘A wicked whisper came, and made | My heart as dry as dust’ (Ancient Mariner, 60). Not only the albatross but he and the whole crew are pierced by the crossbow of his sin.

Yet he leans in Christ-like pose against the mainmast, a part of the boat that was always for Jones redolent of the cross. Alongside slither the water snakes which will be the occasion of his deliverance, ‘A spring of love gushed from my heart, | And I blessed them, unaware’ (ibid: 62). This death-ship is about to become the vessel of his transformation because he is suddenly able to love God’s creation afresh. Although he betrayed the trust of the albatross, thereby showing contempt for ‘all things both great and small’ (ibid: 80), he now ‘seize[s] the hope set before [him]’ (Hebrews 6:18) by ‘the dear God who loveth us’ (Ancient Mariner, 62). In that moment, the string attaching the albatross to his neck in Jones’s engraving seems to slacken, thereby allowing forgiveness to begin, ‘The Albatross fell off, and sank | Like lead into the sea’ (ibid).

 

References

Dilworth, Thomas. 2017. David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet (London: Jonathan Cape)

Miles, Jonathan and Derek Shiel. 1995. David Jones, The Maker Unmade (Bridgend: Seren)

Jones, David. 2005. The Ancient Mariner, ed. by Thomas Dilworth (Alton: Enitharmon Press)

See full exhibition for Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6

Revised Standard Version

6Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do if God permits. 4For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. 7For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.

9 Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation. 10For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. 11And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, 18so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizʹedek.

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