Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Vinteuil on the Poetry Thread has mentioned the death last week of the poet Geoffrey Hill, just twelve days after his 84th birthday. A great poet and a great writer about poetry, he was someone who deeply felt the importance of the Arts as an intellectual force in human affairs, not merely a rather embarrassing sideshow to the Entertainment business - it was my very deep pleasure and privilege to attend his Shakespeare lectures at the University of Leeds in my second year of study there.

Another devastating loss to the world of literature following the death of Umberto Eco in February.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/geoffrey-hill-poetry-should-be-shocking-and-surprising/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/geoffrey-hill-often-hailed-as-britains-greatest-poet-dies-at-84/2016/07/04/9d419778-406b-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html

[french frank]

I missed that news - yes, a great intellectual whose poetry I confess I found difficult. I bought two slim volumes and I'm wondering now whether their apparent absence on my bookshelves means that I gave up on them Shame on me, if so.

[agingjb]

I have, in a house full of books, Hill's Broken Hierarchies and Collected Critical Writings (which, since the news of his death, I have moved to somewhere accessible). Hill's work is extremely challenging; perhaps I should invite that challenge.

[french frank]

Hill's work is extremely challenging; perhaps I should invite that challenge.

Yes, you probably should. I remember buying the two volumes (one was Scenes from Comus and, alas, I can't remember the second) because GH was advertised as appearing on The Verb one week and I thought I should get stuck in before listening to the interview. Unfortunately, the programme at that time reached its intellectual heights when interviewing singer songwriters and was a wash-out, and I gave up on poet and programme. The latter may have improved.

[agingjb]

A posthumous book by Geoffrey Hill, called "The Book of Baruch by the Gnostic Justin" has been published. I find it relatively accessible, which probably means I don't really understand it (any more than I understand the title).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A posthumous book by Geoffrey Hill, called "The Book of Baruch by the Gnostic Justin" has been published. I find it relatively accessible, which probably means I don't really understand it (any more than I understand the title).

- on my Christmas list

A review here (which gives a hint of a clue about the title):

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/03/the-book-of-baruch-by-the-gnostic-justin-geoffrey-hill-review

(And, dear lord! - is it over three years already??? I'd've said "last year" if I'd been asked.)

[silvestrione]

Always seemed a rather daunting, intimidating person to me, and he appeared so on Private Passions, though I liked the fact that he chose quite widely. But when I went to hear him read at Aldeburgh, during his last years, he was different, friendly, witty, humorous, though he didn't mix, just disappeared afterwards. The latest The North magazine has this lovely little sketch by Ed Reiss (hope he won't mind my sharing it here):

Hill 2009

For some reason, his Bradford reading
was in a cellar
and only a handful of people showed up,
but at the end we clapped and cheered so loud and long

that Hill went out the cellar door
then stuck his hand back round
at head height
to give the thumbs-up.

We saw the back of his fist
like a thrust stage
and his thumb
like a man on that stage

about to bow,
unbowed. Then he was gone.

[Beresford]

I dip into Hill's 2002 book of poetry "Orchards of Syan" when I feel like sampling some deep eloquent sort-of-obscure poetry, but it's so very English.
I wish there had been a bit more Mediterranean light, and other cultures. So it's usually Ezra Pound's Cantos that gets picked first, for my superficial swims in the Sea of Deep Poetry.

[Bella Kemp]

Only this morning I picked up the Selected Poems from Waterstones in Kendal (where I see you hail from Beresford!) They also had the Collected Poems which I didn't feel brave enough to tackle. The Kemps have been in the Lake District for the excellent Summer Music Festival - perhaps we sat near you at a concert, Beresford, without knowing!

[Beresford]

Only this morning I picked up the Selected Poems from Waterstones in Kendal (where I see you hail from Beresford!) They also had the Collected Poems which I didn't feel brave enough to tackle. The Kemps have been in the Lake District for the excellent Summer Music Festival - perhaps we sat near you at a concert, Beresford, without knowing!

We have now moved ten miles South of Kendal - it is significantly less rainy! And we went to the Cello masterclass given by Raphael Wallfisch with Kristiana Ignatjeva in Ambleside. Fascinating. Also if you know of an amateur chamber group in that area who are looking for a violinist, I have a violin teacher friend who is moving there soon and she would be very interested. In music, that is, not in Geoffrey Hill, as far as I know.

[Bella Kemp]

Yes, the rain over the past couple of days has been remarkable. We missed the cello masterclass, alas, but were at many of the concerts in Ambleside. We return to London (and the Summer!) tomorrow, but my family live here and I will pass on that query re a chamber group.

[Beresford]

Yes, the rain over the past couple of days has been remarkable. We missed the cello masterclass, alas, but were at many of the concerts in Ambleside. We return to London (and the Summer!) tomorrow, but my family live here and I will pass on that query re a chamber group.

Thank-you Bella. You can always send me a private message.

[agingjb]

I have not found a printed transcription of Hill's Oxford lectures; however, many of the lectures were recorded, and are available at:

https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/professor-sir-geoffrey-hill-lectures