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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Saturday, December 07, 2002</span></h2>

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<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">Don</span></st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">ald <span class="SpellE">Wesling</span> was the first
person to tell that I had to read Geoffrey Hill some twenty years ago. I
finally got around to it recently with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Speech!
Speech! </i><span class="GramE">a</span> series of 120 12-line poems, one for
each of the 120 days of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sodom</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">.
It&#8217;s one of those books that you &#8211; or at least <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I </i>&#8211; want to like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">At one level, this book
seeks a certain density of language, far more taut &amp; compact than most
poets operating within the conservative tradition of the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">British Isles</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">. In that sense, <span class="GramE">it&#8217;s</span>
closest kin among Hill&#8217;s peers might be Paul Muldoon, like Hill a full-time
teacher in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Still, Hill&#8217;s <span class="SpellE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">condensare</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is quite a bit looser than many folks on
this side of the pond, from Zukofsky to Bök. Rather, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Speech! Speech! </i>gestures at density, stuffing the text with
CAPITALS, foreign languages, <span class="SpellE">néédless</span> accents,
feigned dialect &amp; odd slices of vertical punctuation (&#8220;|&#8221;)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>to arrive at a sort of huff-&amp;-puff
dramatic monolog, with an eye to Berryman &amp; an ear towards Hopkins:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Fine
figure of a man, say it. Try<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">thís</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> for size. Say it | why are we waiting?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Get
stuck in. Hurdy-gurdy the starter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">handle</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
to make backfire. Call monthlies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">double-strength</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> stale <span class="SpellE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fleurs</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span class="SpellE">du</span> mal. </i>Too
close<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">for</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
comfort | say it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Herr <span class="SpellE">Präsident</span>, </i>weep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">lubricant</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
and brimstone, wipe yo&#8217; smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">COMPETITIVE
DEVALUATION &#8211; a great find<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">wasted</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
on pleasantries of intermission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Say
it: <span class="SpellE">licence</span> to silence: say it: me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tarzan,
you | diva of multiple choice,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">rode</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
proud on <span class="SpellE">oúr</span> arousal-cárrousel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">There is not one single
device here that wasn&#8217;t used in, say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Cantos</i>, so the question here cannot be one of breaking new ground.
Content-wise, any Poetry Project workshop student who couldn&#8217;t comment more
succinctly on Mr. Clinton&#8217;s personal foibles would stand ashamed &#8211; at twelve
lines, Hill&#8217;s text is seriously bloated. Underneath its gaudy exterior,
individual lines range between nine &amp; twelve syllables, generally yielding
(if you buy all those accents) ye <span class="SpellE">olde</span> five-foot
meter, but at least not with tub-thumping regularity in feet. Hill&#8217;s dramatic
mode throughout is closer to <span class="SpellE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mauberly</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>than to
the later Pound. It seems patently evident that this work, both in this section
&amp; throughout the volume, wants to appear far more Modern than Hill himself
is willing to go. With an apocalyptic vision of life right out of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The </i></span><st1:place><st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Waste</span></i></st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></i><st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Land</span></i></st1:placetype></st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">, Speech!
Speech! </span></i><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Modern with a capital M. <span class="GramE">Which is
to say that it is not at all contemporary.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The
inherent conflict in a conservative poet trying to write as a Modern led to
some great results in Hart Crane&#8217;s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Bridge</i>.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Seven plus decades
later, it has the feel of an historic re-enactment, the way modernism might be
carried out by something like Civil War buffs on a Sunday afternoon. It&#8217;s not
unlike the <span class="SpellE">Bloomsday</span> readings of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ulysses </i>that have become an annual literary sport in several cities
. . . except that Joyce is the real deal, while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Speech! Speech! </i><span class="GramE">is</span> merely aggressively <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faux</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Still, there is both an ear
&amp; a wit here. The last three lines are lovely even with the Christmas-tree
ornamentation of accent &amp; punctuation. And there are moments in the first
nine lines where the over-the-top stylistics are sort of fun. If Hill could
just be read without the critical trappings that have been appended to this
minor art, he might be quite enjoyable. That, alas, is an insurmountable if . .
. .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Hill himself doesn&#8217;t seem so
full of pretense. After all, his models here are decidedly minor. Hill would be
far better served by his advocates if they would not go about declaring him
&#8220;indisputably the best living poet in English and perhaps in the world&#8221; (Peter
Levi), &#8220;The strongest British poet now alive&#8221; (Harold Bloom), &#8220;the best English
poet of the twentieth century&#8221; (</span><st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">Don</span></st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">ald
Hall)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>or &#8220;the finest British poet of our
time&#8221; (John Hollander). Hall, at least, should know better. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">What pathology inscribes
such hubris? Do these critics think that by making such sweepingly ridiculous
claims that they can abolish the actual history of British literature over the
past 100 years, let alone that of the rest of the English speaking world,? Are
they actually ignorant of the work of Basil Bunting, Jeremy Prynne, </span><st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tom Raworth</span></st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">, Allen Fisher, Lee Harwood, Ian Hamilton <span class="SpellE">Finlay</span> or Hugh <span class="SpellE">MacDiarmid</span>?
They&#8217;ve never heard of Samuel Beckett or William Butler Yeats? Against the drab
backdrop of the conservative tradition in British literature, the likes of
Larkin &amp; Hughes, Hill can be said to shine, unquestionably, although I
think you could make a good argument that Auden &amp; Thom Gunn offer
considerably more in the way of substance. But that tradition doesn&#8217;t represent
even one third of British literature and the &#8220;see no contemporary / hear no
contemporary / speak no contemporary&#8221; monkeys of canonic Establishmentarianism
not only commit critical malpractice when they pretend otherwise, they also do
serious damage to the very person whose poetry they claim to support. Poor
Geoffrey Hill!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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