Description
Broken Hierarchies collects twenty books of poems by Geoffrey Hill, written over sixty years, and presents them in their definitive form. Four of these books (Ludo, Expostulations on the Volcano, Liber Illustrium Virorum, and Al Tempo de' Tremuoti) have never before appeared in print, and three of them (Hymns to Our Lady of Chartres, Pindarics, and Clavics) have been greatly revised and expanded.
About the Author
Geoffrey Hill, the son of a police constable, was born in Worcestershire in 1932. He was educated at Bromsgrove County High School and at Keble College, Oxford. After teaching for more than thirty years in England, first at Leeds and subsequently at Cambridge, he became Professor of Literature and Religion at Boston University in Massachusetts, where he was also founding co-director of the Editorial Institute. In 2010 he was elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.
Reviews
Vivid clarity ... intense lyric beauty. This is work of the first importance. * Paul Batchelor, Book of the Year 2014, Times Literary Supplement *
The scale and consistency of this volume, meticulously edited by Kenneth Haynes, and handsomely, if rather minutely, set out, with plenty of white space around poems and a jacket bearing an image from Kokoschka, give it a monumental air ... At the vital, latter end of the book there are huge achievements and intricate exercises, experimental in their rigour. Hill's scraggy apple tree is indeed an emblem of his stupendous late-spring flowering. * John Kerrigan, Times Literary Supplement *
Broken Hierarchies possesses a magisterial intellectual sweep and sense of literary high ambition which is perhaps unique in contemporary English poetry. * Terry Kelly, London Magazine *
Hill has for 40-odd years kept his language as close-textured, tough, knotted and lyrical as poetry can be. If he makes old Eliot seem by comparison an easy read it is not for mere show; these poems are as beautiful, hard, compressed and granular as the rocks and stones and trees from which they are made. * Fred Inglis, The Times Higher Education Supplement *
If the phrase "greatest living poet in the English language" has any meaning, then we should use it to describe Hill. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *
He can rival the best. * Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times *
our greatest post-war poet ... Now arrives the summation of his life's work: Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012. * Sameer Rahim, The Telegraph *
The one certain genius now at work in the English Language. * Alan Marshall, Sunday Telegraph *
Anyone who reads Broken Hierarchies through will recognise that Hill is seriously good, and that he probably belongs among the great. * Colin Burrow, London Review of Books *
The greatest living English poet. * Michael Dirda, Washington Post *
By far the most distinguished exponent of his calling yet alive. * A.N. Wilson, Daily Telegraph *
Just a thousand pages of verse from perhaps our greatest living poet. * Oxford Today *
Our greatest living poet is a reminder to those in public life of the energy of intelligence created by the writing and criticism of poetry. * Daniel Johnson, Standpoint *
Recommended Summer Reading: Astonishing * Rachel Polonsky, Times Literary Supplement *
These volumes include some of the finest, most astringent verse of the twentieth century ... nearly impeccable. * Caleb Caldwell, Make Literary Magazine *
Having spent much of 2014 savoring Geoffrey Hill's colossal Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012, I've come to accept that any review of it will falter as piecemeal commentary in the shadow of its achievement ... the cumulative brilliance and range of Hill's oeuvre make him unquestionably England's greatest living poet. * Adam Tavel, Rain Taxi Review of Books *
Book Information
ISBN 9780199605897
Author Geoffrey Hill
Format Hardback
Page Count 988
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1640g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 163mm * 62mm
About the Author
Geoffrey Hill, the son of a police constable, was born in Worcestershire in 1932. He was educated at Bromsgrove County High School and at Keble College, Oxford. After teaching for more than thirty years in England, first at Leeds and subsequently at Cambridge, he became Professor of Literature and Religion at Boston University in Massachusetts, where he was also founding co-director of the Editorial Institute. In 2010 he was elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.
Reviews
Vivid clarity ... intense lyric beauty. This is work of the first importance. * Paul Batchelor, Book of the Year 2014, Times Literary Supplement *
The scale and consistency of this volume, meticulously edited by Kenneth Haynes, and handsomely, if rather minutely, set out, with plenty of white space around poems and a jacket bearing an image from Kokoschka, give it a monumental air ... At the vital, latter end of the book there are huge achievements and intricate exercises, experimental in their rigour. Hill's scraggy apple tree is indeed an emblem of his stupendous late-spring flowering. * John Kerrigan, Times Literary Supplement *
Broken Hierarchies possesses a magisterial intellectual sweep and sense of literary high ambition which is perhaps unique in contemporary English poetry. * Terry Kelly, London Magazine *
Hill has for 40-odd years kept his language as close-textured, tough, knotted and lyrical as poetry can be. If he makes old Eliot seem by comparison an easy read it is not for mere show; these poems are as beautiful, hard, compressed and granular as the rocks and stones and trees from which they are made. * Fred Inglis, The Times Higher Education Supplement *
If the phrase "greatest living poet in the English language" has any meaning, then we should use it to describe Hill. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *
He can rival the best. * Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Sunday Times *
our greatest post-war poet ... Now arrives the summation of his life's work: Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012. * Sameer Rahim, The Telegraph *
The one certain genius now at work in the English Language. * Alan Marshall, Sunday Telegraph *
Anyone who reads Broken Hierarchies through will recognise that Hill is seriously good, and that he probably belongs among the great. * Colin Burrow, London Review of Books *
The greatest living English poet. * Michael Dirda, Washington Post *
By far the most distinguished exponent of his calling yet alive. * A.N. Wilson, Daily Telegraph *
Just a thousand pages of verse from perhaps our greatest living poet. * Oxford Today *
Our greatest living poet is a reminder to those in public life of the energy of intelligence created by the writing and criticism of poetry. * Daniel Johnson, Standpoint *
Recommended Summer Reading: Astonishing * Rachel Polonsky, Times Literary Supplement *
These volumes include some of the finest, most astringent verse of the twentieth century ... nearly impeccable. * Caleb Caldwell, Make Literary Magazine *
Having spent much of 2014 savoring Geoffrey Hill's colossal Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012, I've come to accept that any review of it will falter as piecemeal commentary in the shadow of its achievement ... the cumulative brilliance and range of Hill's oeuvre make him unquestionably England's greatest living poet. * Adam Tavel, Rain Taxi Review of Books *
Book Information
ISBN 9780199605897
Author Geoffrey Hill
Format Hardback
Page Count 988
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1640g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 163mm * 62mm
