Poetry Lecture, December 3

The next Oxford Professor of Poetry Lecture will be Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 5:30 pm in the South School of the Examination Schools.  Sir Geoffrey Hill will speak on "Poetry and 'the Democracy of the Dead'".

Links:
Podcasts: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/regular-events/professor-poetry
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/upcoming-events/201312/professor-poetry-lecture

"Fields of Force"

Sorry for such short notice, but tomorrow, Tuesday, November 27, 2012, Sir Geoffrey Hill will be giving his first lecture for 2012-13 at Oxford, in the Examination Schools, at 5:30 p.m.
"Fields of Force" is the title of the lecture.

http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/upcoming-events/201211/professor-poetry-lecture

For podcasts of previous lectures:
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/regular-events/professor-poetry

29 November, 2011

Geoffrey Hill's first lecture of this academic year, "Poetry, Policing and Public Order (1)." will be delivered on November 29, 2011, at 5:30 p.m., in the South School of the Examination Schools.

Links
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/upcoming-events/201111/professor-poetry-lecture

Happy May Day!

Clavics is listed as a bestseller for the London Review Bookshop (newsletter of April 28th).

The book was reviewd in The Economist (first time that's happened for a book of poetry by Hill).

For more breadth, why not listen to Hill's first and second Oxford Professor of Poetry lectures on-line?

He'll be speaking again, on "Poetry and Disproportion" in Oxford, on May 10th, at 5:30 p.m. in the South School of the Examination Schools.

Links:

"Mr Difficult," The Economist (April 4, 2011).

Geoffrey Hill, "Eccentric to the ends of his master or state," second lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry (http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/kebl/general/2011-hill-poetry-2.mp3). (See also http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/201104/professor-poetry-podcasts).

Oxford Professor of Poetry Lecture Announcement (www.english.ox.ac.uk).

Geoffrey Hill's inaugural lecture podcast

Excellent news: Matthew Sperling has recently shared on the "Geoffrey Hill for Oxford Professor of Poetry 2010" page on Facebook that Hill's inaugural lecture is now online at Keble College's website (http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/alumni/past-events/past-events). Direct link to podcast (http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/kebl/general/2010-11-30-hill-poetry-keble.mp3).

International Women's Day with the Oxford Professor of Poetry

The Oxford Professor of Poetry will be giving his second lecture on March 8th, 5:30 pm, in the South School of the Examination Schools: "Eccentrique to the endes of his Master or State"

Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, this lecture takes place on the 100 year anniversary of the celebration of International Women's Day.

Links

"Professor of Poetry, Geoffrey Hill, 2nd Lecture" (Keble).

"Professor of Poetry Lecture" (Faculty of English, Oxford).

International Women's Day (United Nations).

#44 - Inaugural Lecture (a few notes)

It began with notions of poetry as perjury (see Shakespeare's sonnets 152, 138, 121, 129, especially 111, and Pierre Joris's tranlsation of Celan: "the hundred-/ tongued My-/poem, the Lie-noem"). It ended with prophecy: today's literary scene is good for landfill. Society is plagued with scams including the banker's scam, the coalition scam, the education scam, the national happiness scam... Apparently the notion of intrinsic value is not to be reserved for poetry only. A poem may be a living entity (Pope's spider), but so is criticism: young Lowell benefited from a very critical review by R.P. Blackmur, and Christopher Ricks made a mistake in publishing a book about Bob Dylan's verse.

One example of the resistance that Hill is proposing is Shakespeare's 66th sonnet, which he declared impossible to paraphrase:

Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry:

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honor shamefully misplac'd,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,

And strength by limping way disabled,

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly doctor-like controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill.

Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,

Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Inaugural Lecture

"How ill white hairs become a fool and jester" is the title of Geoffrey Hill's inaugural lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry, to be held Tuesday November 30, 5:15 pm, in South School, Examination Schools (www.english.ox.ac.uk).

Meanwhile, now that all Paris Review interviews are available for reading on-line, it's a perfect time to re-read "The Art of Poetry," Geoffrey Hill interviewed by Carl Phillips (2000).

Amor-Roma: Love the Roms

"Hill is far edgier, far better, and far more important." That is Richard King comparing Geoffrey Hill to other poets "who claim to be taking poetry to the people" (The Australian, August 4, 2010). Hill has not sought out popularity, he "is nothing if not a contrarian," notes Gregory Wolfe (Image, Summer 2010).

As France roils over recent expulsion policies by the Sarkozy government concerning the Roma (Roms as they are known in French), Hill's interview in Poetry Wales (Summer 2010) sounds out loud and clear: "...there was a rumour in my family that one of our ancestors was Roma, and I had hoped very much to have this proved."

Unlike the Pope, who spoke out against France's racist measures this past week, Hill was not directly addressng French policy. But certainly he has not forgotten that the nazi plan for genocide (the word came into being in 1944) was also directed against Roma.

Hill's poetry may not "make anything happen," but if you read it, you are likely to become more aware of what is happening.

Links:

Richard King, "Great Poetry is no Scandal," The Australian (August 4, 2010).

Gregory Wolfe, "Who's Afraid of Geoffrey Hill," Image 66 (Summer 2010).

Roms in France

Raymond Etienne, Olivier Bernard, François Soulage, "Roms : une crise humanitaire en France," Libération (July 28, 2009).

"Roms: deux évêques contre une 'surenchère sécuritaire,'" LibéRennes (July 27, 2010).

"Un camp de Roms évacué en région parisienne," Libération (August 12, 2010).

"Les propos du pape sur les Roms divisent la droite," Nouvel Observateur (August 23, 2010).

"Le Christ, comme un scrupule," Nystagmus (August 24, 2010).

Geoffrey Hill is Oxford Professor of Poetry

What better gift for his birthday? Geoffrey Hill has just been elected the 44th Oxford Professor of Poetry by a wide margin, with 1,156 votes. The nine other candidates combined mustered 982 votes between them, with Michael Horovitz coming in second place (353 votes).

Links
"Geoffrey Hill triumphs as Professor of Poetry" University of Oxford (June 18, 2010).
Alison Flood, "Geoffrey Hill wins Oxford Professor of Poetry election by landslide," Guardian (June 18, 2010).

"Geoffrey Hill named Oxford poetry professor" BBC (June 18, 2010).

Alison Flood, " 'A poet of great eminence': Geoffrey Hill's landslide victory restores prestige to Oxford professorship," Guardian (June 18, 2010).

Jack Malvern, "Geoffrey Hill becomes Oxford Professor of Poetry with landslide vote," Times (June 18, 2010).

Dave Itzkoff, "After Rough Campaign, a New Professor of Poetry," New York Times (June 18, 2010).

Harry Mount, "Geoffrey Hill becomes Oxford's new Professor of Poetry, and quite right too," Telegraph (June 18, 2010).

Dave Itzkoff, "Geoffrey Hill is Oxford's Next Professor of Poetry," Arts Beat/NYT (June 18, 2010).

John Allemang, "Sex, lies and poetry wars," Globe and Mail (June 18, 2010).

John Walsh, "A new professor of poetry at Oxford, and no scandal," Independent (June 19, 2010).

Matthew Moore, "Favourite Geoffrey Hill elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford University," Telegraph (June 19, 2010).

Sean O'Brien, "Geoffrey Hill powers his way to a poetic pinnacle," Guardian Books Blog (June 21, 2010).

"The damage done to the Oxford Professorship of Poetry..."

J.C., writing in the TLS (May 21, 2010, p.36):

"Our vote, if we had one, would go to Geoffrey Hill, who has not personally issued a statement. It speaks volumes."

LINKS

Dave Itzkoff, "Lone Female Candidate Quits Oxford Poetry Race," New York Times (June 10, 2010).

Heidi Blake, "Oxford professor of poetry election mired in controversy again over sexism claims," Telegraph (June 10, 2010).

Roger Lewis, "Now here's what I call poetry," Telegraph (June 9, 2010).

Alison Flood, "Oxford poetry professor candidate withdraws as controversy erupts again," Guardian (June 9, 2010).

Stephen Moss, "My bid to become Oxford professor of poetry is going from bad to verse," Guardian (June 2, 2010).

Tim Adams, "Sean Haldane: 'I now think poetry has more capacity to change people than psychotherapy,' " Observer (May 30, 2010).

Alison Flood, "Weapons drawn, 'codgers' quartered: race to be Oxford poetry professor gets serious," Guardian (May 18, 2010).

Alison Flood, "Oxford poetry professor field narrows to final 11," Guardian (May 7, 2010).

Vote Hill

Even if you are not authorized to vote officially in the election, you may wish to join the "Geoffrey Hill for Oxford Professor of Poetry 2010" group created by Matthew Sperling on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114833438548051

Will there be a debate?

Now there are three people running for the Oxford Professor of Poetry. Perhaps it would be useful to have a televised debate, with the three candidates fielding questions from the audience... Monday's Guardian picks Hill as the winner.

Mark Brown, "Oxford poetry professorship re-run begins," Guardian (April 19, 2010).

Musical Comedy

Yes indeed, the plot thickens as Paula Claire enters the competition for the Oxford Professor of Poetry. She favors "concrete poetry," and although you may never have heard of her before, you can listen to some of her poems on-line, and buy more, right from her site.

If this were a competition about poetics for live performance at a Halloween Party, I'd vote for Paula (here's why).

"Now Paula Who? enters the poets' fray" Londoner's Diary, London Evening Standard (March 31, 2010).

paulaclaire.com

University of Oxford, official nominations page (Spring 2010).

Violent face?

The title reads almost like a circus announcement, and the first half of the article makes us wonder a bit about the critic's implied superiority to poets such as Ben Jonson and Paul Verlaine (but after all, as Huck Finn once said, "I don't take no stock in dead people"). The second half of the article reveals a few useful facts:

- If Geoffrey Hill is elected as the Oxford Professor of Poetry he will receive a £7,000 annual stipend. (If he's interested, he might be able to purchase a raft for the Mississippi River?—Or better yet the Cherwell or the Thames).

- 300,000 Oxford graduates will have a chance to vote for the candidates by internet, over a three-week period that comes to an end, in timely fashion, on June 18.

If Jim were to perform a little voodoo on this question, my guess is that he'd forcast that GH will win. Give this a look:

- Cahal Milmo, "Is this the violent new face of poetry at Oxford? Writer famed for brutality of his verse nominated for prestigious professorship," Independent (March 25, 2010).

- Nicola Woolcock, "Geoffrey Hill nominated Professor of Poetry at Oxford after scandal," Times (March 25, 2010).

- Geoffrey Hill Exchange (Facebook).

- Stephen Moss, "My bid for Oxford poetry glory," Guardian (February 22, 2010).

- Alison Flood, "Contest for Oxford poetry professor begins again," Guardian (February 18, 2010).

- Dave Itzkoff, "After a Cruelest Month, Oxford Resumes Search for Poetry Professor, Arts Beat, Blog, New York Times (February 18, 2010).