A review I wrote for `rec.arts.books'...
Geoffrey Hill, Canaan, 1996, Penguin.
This is a grand occasion. The first book of new poems from England's
premier poet in ten years. At the age of 64 he is still vigorous.
Teaching in Boston nowadays.
As we expect from Geoffrey Hill we have a genuine poet's language.
Luxurious and opulent, with the original striking phrase. But the
problem in the book is to understand what is going on. In his finest
poem `Funeral Music' this did not matter because the impulse of the
threnody was so vital that it transmuted itself into meaning. But
here in the relatively little poems written past 50 there is great
difficulty in finding understanding. Perhaps I am too thick. Or just
uneducated. This is elitist poetry which will be understood by very
few in the English-speaking world. It speaks to itself and not in
a way that we are delighted to overhear. It is too difficult.
Geoffrey Hill's greatest successes, apart from `Funeral Music',
have been `Mercian Hymns' and `The Mystery of the Charity of Charles
Peguy'. Both of these are open to general appreciation. In particular
the Peguy poem, after schooling himself in translating Ibsen's `Brand',
is very matter of fact. Plainsong as Basil Bunting might have said.
Although `Mercian Hymns' is the greater work and more in Geoffrey
Hill's true style. So it is a disappointment to find `Canaan' opaque.
And finicky in its nit-picking from recent history. Not the grand
work we might have expected. Perhaps he finds it difficult to raise
steam these days. But do read this book and glory in the succulence
of the language.
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