10 responses to “A Civil Note on the Press”

1. 

   Rob

   18/08/2007

   Yes, it’s not really a new book, although I haven’t read any of it. Sounds interesting, but will be a lot of time and a lot of work. That’s the problem with Hill – unless you don’t plan to read anything else for a few months, his later poems will remain largely impenetrable.

   Strange too that Peter McDonald writes about, “the beautiful, but syntactically strange and disorienting, long poems of The Orchards of Syon (2002)” – a collection of 72 poems, each of 24 lines, or you could view it as single poem in 72 sections, which makes me wonder if PM has actually read it!

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2. 

   Andrew Philip

   19/08/2007

   Quite. That comment struck me as odd too. Twenty four lines is not exactly long. I’d certainly regard The Orchards of Syon as a single poem, whereas Without Title is definitely a collection.

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3. 

   Matt Merritt

   20/08/2007

   That annoyed me too, Andrew. Nice to see a volume of poetry heavily featured, but why nothing else? I hope the flimsiness of the Review at the moment (no letters, little or no diary) is just a temporary thing, or it’s going to start looking less than essential.

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4. 

   Anonymous

   21/08/2007

   Hope this works – a rare intervention from me, Andrew. Peter McDonald was my tutor at Cambridge and has been insinuating himself with GH for some time, appearing at the same festivals, etc. McDonald is a shrewd critic and a furiously career-driven poet who is not shy of his own opinions. That said, I’m sure he has read “Syon”, though I disagree with his opinion. And Rob, might I suggest reading the later Hill as one could Finnegan’s Wake, allowing sense to occur to you as it does, enjoying the rhythms and music, rather than as an exercise in what Joyce might have termed gastro-etymology? Cheers – James Wood

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5. 

   Andrew Philip

   21/08/2007

   Matt, I’ve noticed that the Review tends to get flimsier over the summer months. In past years, that has tended to mean the poetry reviews have vanished until autumn, so I suppose we should welcome the fact that it’s different this year.

   James, thanks for your comment. I agree. Hill has one of the best ears at work in the business at the moment, so I don’t mind quite so much not getting what he’s getting at. I do mind not having the time to dig deeper, but I’d rather enjoy his more surface pleasures, which are considerable, than let laziness and lack of time hold me from them.

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6. 

   Anonymous

   29/08/2007

   The Clutag contents as follows, over 35 pages:

   * On reading Milton and the English Revolution
   * To the Lord Protector Cromwell
   * A Treatise of Civil Power
   * Coda
   * On reading Burke on Empire, etc.
   * On reading Blake: Prophet, etc.
   * On reading Hazlitt: Lectures, etc.
   * A Cloud in Aquila

   Main difference is the 42-section ‘Treatise’ poem in this, which has been plundered for new poems in the Penguin edition, e.g. ‘Before Senility’.

   I have copy 109 of the 400 … very nicely printed.

   ABJ

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7. 

   Andrew Philip

   29/08/2007

   Thanks, Andy. That’s interesting to know.

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8. 

   Anonymous

   30/08/2007

   Slightly mis-read yr. post Andy, thinking you were after the Clutag contents. Penguin has:

   The Minor Prophets
   Citations I
   Citations II
   On reading Milton etc.
   Holbein I
   Holbein II
   Parallel Lives I
   Parallel Lives II
   Masques
   Harmonia Sacra
   On reading Blake etc.
   To the Lord Protector Cromwell
   On reading Burke etc.
   A Cloud in Aquila
   In Framlingham Church
   De Necessitate
   After reading Children of Albion
   Integer Vitae
   On looking through 50 Jahre etc.
   A Precis or Memorandum of Civil Power
   G.F. Handel, opus 6.
   An Emblem
   The Peacock at Alderton
   In memorian: Gillian Rose
   Johannes Brahms, opus 2.
   In Memorian: Aleksander Wat
   Before Senility
   On reading The Essayes or Counsels etc.
   In Memorian: Ernst Barlach
   On reading Crowds and Power
   The Oath
   Coda
   Lyric Fragment
   Nachwort

   ABJ

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9. 

   Andrew Philip

   30/08/2007

   Thanks again, Andy. As the Penguin book runs to 64 pages, I presume that not all the pieces in it are plundered, to use your word, from the Clutag edition. Is that a fair assumption? And how much has the plunder been melted down, or has he just resprayed it?

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10. 

    Anonymous

    30/08/2007

    Ah, that would require a comparative work-out for which I just don’t have the legs at the minute 🙂

    Now I look, though, Citations I and II are culled from the original ‘Treatise’ poem as well, with modifications.

    ABJ

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