Clavics - Hardcover

Hill, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1907587128 ISBN 13: 9781907587122

Publisher: Enitharmon Press, 2011

Synopsis

This is a signed limited edition of 90 beautiful books, hand-bound and slipcased by the Fine Book Bindery in flecked maroon Dubletta cloth with Fabriano Tiziano endpapers. There has only ever been one other Geoffrey Hill SLE printed, making this a rare opportunity for poetry afficionados and collectors alike.

About this title

Review:

The Economist New poetry Mr Difficult Hard work-but worth it Apr 14th 2011 | from the print edition Clavics. By Geoffrey Hill. Enitharmon Press; 41 pages; GBP12. Buy from Amazon.co.uk GEOFFREY HILL, who became the Oxford Professor of Poetry after Ruth Padel was forced suddenly to resign in 2009, is generally acknowledged to be difficult. His poetry - rich in allusions, unattributed quotations and revelling in the obscurity of words - requires multiple dictionaries to hand, leading it to being far more studied than read. Born in Worcestershire in 1932, the son of a police constable, Mr Hill is considered by many to be one of Britain's greatest living poets. But aspects of his work do not lend themselves to popular appeal. The tendency of his poems to focus on the anxiety of an agnostic faith has made him an easy target for parody. His poetry, like his celebrated criticism, demands a certain austerity and intensity; for the reader to be seemingly as disciplined and as educated as the poet. On first reading, Mr Hill's new collection, "Clavics", does little to dispel this difficult image. "Poetry is eccentric," Mr Hill claims in it, a "Labour of Pride". The poet takes as his initial subject matter a little known Cavalier composer, William Lawes, who at his death in the battle of Chester in 1645 was already overshadowed by his brother, Henry. Over 32 poems Mr Hill traces an elegiac sequence for Lawes and his music, intermingling the historical events around his death with flashes of the everyday. The result is a collection that delights in eccentric incongruities. Ben Jonson will appear a line after a popular instant coffee blend has been mentioned, Dante will be found next to a mime artist, Marcel Marceau, and Lawes himself figures auditioning for Ronnie Scott. Mr Hill actively seeks out such juxtapositions. He will audaciously rhyme "haruspex", an Etruscan soothsayer who saw prophecies in the entrails of victims, with "bad sex", his poetry delighting in "a dissonance to make them wince". And such wincing dissonance is perhaps appropriate for a poet who, alongside writing about religious angst in a secular age ("I have admired/Dawkins' mortal quips/As was required"), also writes deftly about the public role of the poet, and the anxieties attached to such a position. Harmony and lyricism are hard to find in a world which can seem so disjointed, and Mr Hill's growling "lyric-loutish" voice ensures a reader never forgets this. And yet, when we are told to "Splash blessings on dead in Afghanistan" the sudden mention of contemporary conflicts may seem overly ironic or crude. Yet, as Mr Hill writes, when speaking of Lawes's tendency to jar different musical themes, "the grace of music is its dissonance." This discordance is part of his wider belief in the public nature of poetry. Refusing to be a "light entertainer" like the hypocrites in Dante's inferno, Mr Hill presents a difficult world as he sees it. His gift lies in making such difficulty momentarily understood.

About the Author:

Geoffrey Hill was elected the Oxford Professor of Poetry in 2010. He was knighted for services to literature in 2012.

About this edition

• Publisher: Enitharmon Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1907587128
• ISBN 13: 9781907587122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 41