Product Description

The first Selected from 'England's most important living poet' The Times 'Hill so entirely eclipses most of his contemporaries that it seems meaningless to rank in relation to them. Trumpets should be blown, garlands made ... loquacious, playful, wildly comic ... poignant. His greatness is as certain as that of the poets he invokes' Daily Telegraph 'Whatever the densities of Hill's expression, or the powerful impacted forces in his syntax and rhythms, this poetry achieves a strength, memorability and precision beyond the abilities of any other poet writing in English' Peter McDonald, TLS

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30161 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 1932, Geoffrey Hill is the author of three books of criticism and eleven books of poetry, including The Triumph of Love, co-winner of the Heinemann Award. His Collected Poems, Canaan, The Triumph of Love, Speech! Speech!, The Orchards of Syon, Scenes from Comus and Without Title are all published by Penguin. Hill currently lives and teaches in Massachusetts, where he is Professor of Literature and Religion at Boston University. He is also Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford; Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; and since 1996 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Customer Reviews

Poetry Please!
A huge disappointment. Starts off presciently with dazzling pieces from Hill's earliest work (For the Unfallen), then (with one or two exceptions) rapidly descends into impenetrable, autistic, verbiage which, sadly, is not intended to be illuminating. Hill is constipated with complex, tortuous ideas, which he is unable to translate into verse. But this is just as well because he does not consider his readers worthy of his thoughts. A big question mark continues to hang over Hill's credentials. His Selected Poems do not help his cause.

The Progression of Our Times
Selected Poems

I find that Mr. Hill has progressed from a highly formal, carefully structured verse form to a looser, more boldly imaginative vernacular which is highly reminiscent, to my mind, of the transition made in Robert Lowell's writing career with equivalent results. Both are major poets who have shaped the way verse can be written and daringly re-imagined themselves in mid-career.