Geoffrey Hill's Later Work

Sir Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016) was often referred to as 'the greatest living poet' during his lifetime, but his work often provokes bemusement or even hostility, and much of his later work has not received any serious critical commentary. This book provides a thorough analysis of the prolific twenty-year period between 1996 and 2016, from The Triumph of Love to Al Tempo de Tremuoti.

This study provides exegetical and interpretive readings of Hall's later work, including the four previously-unpublished collections and substantial expansions and revisions of existing works included in his 2013 collected poems, Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012, setting it within its literary, cultural, intellectual and historical contexts. It also considers Hill's later criticism in depth, including the two collections of essays first published in 2008's Collected Critical Writings (Alienated Majesty and Inventions of Value), as well as the Oxford Professor of Poetry lectures, illuminating archival materials from the Hill archive at the University of Leeds, and uncollected critical pieces.

Alex Wylie explores the poetry and prose thematically, chapter by chapter, providing the reader with a key to the underlying concerns of Hill's later work, and to its influences and exemplars. This book brings a valuable and underappreciated body of work not just to specialists on Hill and modern poetry, but to a wider audience of scholars and readers of modern poetry and modern intellectual history.