'Fact' and 'Truth': Empire and Culture in David Jones' The Grail Mass.

David Jones' recently published long poem, The Grail Mass, poignantly re-imagines the events leading to Christ's crucifixion through the eyes of two Roman legionaries who are detailed to stand guard at the cross. Jones uses the poem's Biblical re-telling to juxtapose two visions of society: the world of 'truth', by which he means cultures that spring from tradition and religious belief and the world of 'fact', by which he means rationalist societies organized around the utilitarian pursuit of land, wealth and resources. I first explore Jones' poetic understanding of 'truth' and 'fact' in The Grail Mass, and then consider his identification of similar forces in modernity, through an examination of an unpublished 1939 essay in which Jones' wrestles with the ways in which pre-war totalitarian rulers, especially Hitler, co-opted his ideal of a traditional culture, or world of 'truth', to facilitate dictatorial and imperialist aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]