A selective bibliography of open access internet articles on Geoffrey Hill, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Authors of Web Sites
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Alderman, Nigel and C.D. Blanton, (eds.) Issue devoted to "Pocket Epics: British Poetry After Modernism." The topic is defined as British poetry written since 1945 that takes on both "the ambitious project of mapping some form of totality and its deliberate restriction." Contains articles on Geoffrey Hill by Kerrigan, John, "Divided Kingdoms and the Local Epic: Mercian Hymns to The King of Britain's Daughter;" Blanton, C. D., "Nominal Devolutions: Poetic Substance and the Critique of Political Economy;" Roberts, Andrew Michael, "Geoffrey Hill and Pastiche: 'An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England' and The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy;" and Edwards, Michael, "Quotidian Epic: Geoffrey Hill's The Triumph of Love." Other poets covered include Basil Bunting and Roy Fisher. Yale Journal of Criticism: Interpretation in the Humanities 2000 Spring; 13 (1)
Bloom, Harold. From Harold Bloom's introduction to Somewhere Is Such a Kingdom: Poems 1952-1971 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975)
Boudway, Matthew. The Betrayals of Style. "Most of the essays in Style and Faith were written as reviews for the Times Literary Supplement. All but two are about the literature, politics, and ecclesiastical disputes of 16th- and 17th-century England. None of them make any concessions to the nonspecialist. In a discussion of Hobbes's Leviathan, for example, it is simply assumed that the reader is familiar with the biography of Sidney Godolphin, the man to whom Hobbes dedicated his great work. Indeed, Hill's whole interpretation of Hobbes seems to turn on this presumed familiarity. Such confidence in the general reader's knowledge and discernment is admirable; it is the corollary of Hill's strong conviction that 'accessibility' is usually a form of condescension." In Crisis Magazine, 3/9/04
Bromwich, David. Muse of Brimstone: A review of Speech! Speech! "This is the third book of poems by Geoffrey Hill to appear since 1996. Distinct as they have been in stance and procedure, the three share an uncommon aspiration to prophetic speech." NY Times, March 11, 2001
Bromwich, David. 'Geoffrey Hill and the Conscience of Words', Chapter 11 in Skeptical Music: Essays on Modern Poetry. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2001
Brownjohn, Alan. Review of Geoffrey Hill's Without Title (Penguin, 2006) in The Sunday Times, 2/19/06; Additional reviews: by Nicholas Lezard, in The Guardian, January 21, 2006; by Tim Martin in the Sunday Independent, 05 February 2006; by Robert Potts in the Observer 1/22/06; by Michael Schmidt in The Independent, 17 February 2006; by Clive Wilmer in The New Statesman
Fogle, Andy. An appreciation of Speech! Speech! (Counterpoint, 2000) in Pop Matters
Hammer, Langdon "The American Poetry of Thom Gunn and Geoffrey Hill." On Hill's relationship to the poetry of Allen Tate, Gunn's to Yvor Winters, and Tate and Winters' attitude towards Hart Crane. Hammer concludes that Hill "maintains Tate's scrupulous evaluations without, however, sacrificing the 'intensities' and sensuous richness of a poet like Hart Crane." In Contemporary Literature 2002 Winter; 43 (4): 644-66
Hart, Henry. "A Late Harvest," a review of The Orchards of Syon (Counterpoint). In Crisis Magazine, Jul/Aug 2002. Other reviews: The Limits of the Ineluctable by Paul Mariani, In America: The National Catholic Weekly; by Tom Payne in The Telegraph, 9/28/02; by Vernon Scannell in Ambit 107 (2002)
Hill, Geoffrey. Article by Geoffrey Hill on his The Orchards of Syon, written for the Poetry Book Society Bulletin
Jacobs, Alan. Discusses Geoffrey Hill's Style and Faith, which contains Hill's critical essays on Gerard Manley Hopkins, T. S. Eliot, Tyndale, Donne, Richard Hooker, Robert Burton, Henry Vaughan, the historian Lord Clarendon, Isaac Watts and the Wesleys. "A straightforward reading of Style and Faith would lead to the conclusion that Hill cares a good deal more about style than about faith." In Christianity Today, 5/1/04
Logan, William. Review of Geoffrey Hill's The Orchards of Syon Says Logan "Such poems are proud of their disfigured guise, their diseased violence in language. (Middle-class matrons and shipping clerks won’t be setting up Geoffrey Hill societies any time soon.) If there are critics to labor over these poems as they have over Eliot and Pound, the deep shafts of footnotes will gradually mine their subliminal hurts and sublime graces." Also reviews Charles Wright's A Short History of the Shadow, Poems Seven by Alan Dugan, Cynthia Zarin’s The Watercourse, Dick Davis's Belonging, Jorie Graham's Never. In The New Criterion, June 2002
Lyon, John. "Pardon?": Our Problem with Difficulty (and Geoffrey Hill) A review of Geoffrey Hill's The Triumph of Love in Thumbscrew 13, (Spring/Summer 1999)
Marshall, Alan. A review of Without Title notes that Hill "is the one certain genius now at work in the English language, or, if you prefer, the poet with the truest ear for the genius of the language, and he is busily putting together, in the eighth decade of his life, a body of late poetry such as we have scarcely seen." In The Sunday Telegraph 2/12/06
Potts, Robert. The praise singer A sensitive biographical profile of Geoffrey Hill, includes discussion of his reception and politics. In The Guardian, August 10, 2002
Roberts, Andrew M. A substantial introduction to Geoffrey Hill from the Literary Encyclopedia 11/01/2005
Sherry, Vincent. Publisher's blurb for The Uncommon Tongue: The Poetry and Criticism of Geoffrey Hill by Vincent Sherry (Univ. of Michigan Press, 1987). "Sherry sees Hill's view of language standing in opposition to that of the anti-Modernists, who saw language as a tool of empirical reference....He is a 'nominalist' for whom the word itself is an object of 'proper wariness'....he too is concerned with 'civil speech'--a language apt if not entirely adequate to the serious themes of poetry--the major concerns of man as an ethical and political being."
Silkin, Jon. Silkin's brief remarks on Geoffrey Hill's "September Song"
Sonjae, An. An essay compares poets R.S. Thomas and Geoffrey Hill "From Cardiff to Canaan: R.S.Thomas and Geoffrey Hill." By Brother Anthony (An Sonjae). First published in Studies in Modern British and American Poetry (Korea) 2 (1997) pages 5 - 29
Short article on Leeds University and the origin of the "Leeds poets" [Geoffrey Hill, Tony Harrison, Jon Silkin, Ken Smith, and Jeffrey Wainwright] and links to related records and manuscripts at Leeds Univ. From the Leeds Univ. web site
Table of contents for a special issue of Stand magazine devoted to the Leeds poets, Vol 2, No. 2 (2003)
A Geoffrey Hill web page at The Complete Review web site includes a biography, some original reviews, and links to published reviews
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