Sir Geoffrey Hill at Villeroy, September 8, 2013

On the 99th anniversary of Péguy's death, commemorated by the Amitié Charles Péguy at Villeroy on the Sunday that follows September 5th, Sir Geoffrey Hill met several descendants of the poet and read from The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy.



The five stanzas are from the tenth section of the poem that was first published thirty years ago this year.  Next to Sir Geoffrey Hill is Michel Péguy, Péguy's grandson. On the other side, with the microphone, is the Mayor of Villeroy.  This video was produced by Olivier Péguy, Péguy's great-grandson.  Sir Geoffrey Hill was voted an honorary member of Amitié Charles Péguy earlier this year. More information can be found at the Péguy association's website (http://www.charlespeguy.fr).

Did Péguy kill Jaurès?

"Did Péguy kill Jaurès?  Did he incite / the assassin?" asked Hill's poem The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy (1983).  In France, the questioning continues.

Pierre Assouline, "Darcos a-t-il édulcoré Péguy?" Le Monde, blog (November 28, 2008).

Hédi Kaddour, "Quand M. Darcos écrit l'Histoire," Po&sie (November 2008).

A one-day conference about Péguy and the Press, sponsored by the association Amitié Charles Péguy, will take place December 7, Maison Nicolas Barré, 75006 Paris.

David Gervais on Hill's "Late Flowering" in PN Review

A few tidbits from "The Late Flowering of Geoffrey Hill" by David Gervais in PN Review 183, 35.1 (September-October 2008):

"...what gives Hill's verse its name for 'difficulty' is less its abstruseness (things can after all be looked up) than its refusal to spell out the links in its chain."

"...Hill's verse is not 'difficult' because it is recondite but because it puts us on the spot as readers, that is, on the spot both morally and aesthetically."

"The hostile voices that disrupt the surface of Speech! Speech! are ultimately inseparable from its 'noble vernacular', woven into the fabric of the very poetry they threaten.  Nothing better shows why Hill is essentially a public poet than this obligation he feels to include such alien voices within his verse even when they run counter to its lyric inspiration."

Hill's conference at the Collège de France on-line (MP3)

Geoffrey Hill was invited by Michael Edwards to speak at the Collège de France (March 18, 2008), and the conference has been posted on-line in MP3 format (July 2008).