Acceptable Words : Essays on the Poetry of Geoffrey Hill

Geoffrey Hill has said that some great poetry ‘recognises that words fail us’. This book explores his struggle over fifty years with the recalcitrance of language. It seeks to show how all Hill's work is marked by the quest for the right pitch of utterance whether it is sorrowing, angry, satiric or erotic. The book shows how Hill's words are never lightly ‘acceptable’ but an ethical act, how he seeks out words he can stand by—words that are ‘getting it right’. It is a comprehensive critical work on Geoffrey Hill, covering all his work up to Scenes from Comus (2005), as well as some poems yet to appear in book form. Geoffrey Hill has said that some great poetry 'recognises that words fail us'. These essays explore Hill's struggle over fifty years with the recalcitrance of language. This book seeks to show how all his work is marked by the quest for the right pitch of utterance whether it is sorrowing, angry, satiric or erotic. It shows how Hill's words are never lightly 'acceptable' but an ethical act, how he seeks out words he can stand by - words that are 'getting it right'. This book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date critical work on Geoffrey Hill so far, covering all his work up to 'Scenes from Comus' (2005), as well as some poems yet to appear in book form. It aims to contribute something to the understanding of his poetry among those who have followed it for many years and students and other readers encountering this major poet for the first time Front Matter Epigraph Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations ‘Acceptable words’ ‘The speechless dead’ Poet, lover, liar ‘Our love is what we love to have’ Things and words History as poetry The Triumph of Love (1998) ‘Beauty is difficult’ ‘Here and there I pull a flower’ ‘In wintry solstice like the shorten’d light’ Afterword Notes Select bibliography Index 'Acceptable words' comprises a series of highly individual essays covering the whole of Geoffrey Hill's poetry to date, including the remarkable late flowering of the years since 1996. The essays offer detailed readings of many poems whilst making many - often surprising - associations with history, philosophy, religion, art and music.