King Log

by Geoffrey Hill

"A small collection, it nevertheless serves as an excellent introduction to the poet, showing many of his concerns and much of his talent in poems that are concise and lyrical. --Beginning with the important Ovid in the Third Reich, Hill's interests here include the horrors of the Third Reich, but also look farther back in history, using the examples of the fates of numerous poets in several of the poems." (The Complete Review).

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Sir Geoffrey William Hill was an English poet and professor emeritus of English literature and religion.

Reviews

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently I read this back in 2008 (see my stupid review below) but didn't remember reading it. I disagree with everything I wrote then. King Log is brilliant.

--

I made the "mistake" of reading this collection after I'd read his long poem, The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy. These poems are not nearly as good. He learned a lot in the intervening fifteen years.

Now, compared with most poetry collections published since 1960, King Log is good. And even when it's not good, at least it's serious and about things other than Hill's feelings and identity.

The only section I loved was "The Songbook of Sebastian Arrurruz," but perhaps I'll like the other poems more whenever I reread this.

The Charles Péguy poem convinced me I should read every poem Hill ever wrote (even Speech! Speech!, which looks truly terrible). I'm curious to read For the Unfallen, his first book, because the opening poem (aptly titled "Genesis") is much better than anything in this collection, even the Arrurruz sequence.

In conclusion, read some dang poetry, people!!!

[Jamie Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 4.5er, in terms of enjoyment this read. He's stronger here, more in control. I respect his decision to write "difficult poetry" (see him quoted below), even if I disagree with him somewhat on the point. This reading highlighted how much I value reading difficult work in community. The poems I struggled over here often yielded rich fruit. But when I came to "September Song," a poem I read one afternoon with a dozen brilliant minds in a class I audited 8 years ago, I was thrown back into it like a deep and glittering pool. It was amazing how much more alive this poem is to me than the others, thanks mostly I think to that afternoon eight years ago of turning the poem's facets with a room of thinkers from diverse backgrounds.

Lots of viscera and filth in this collection.

Favorites:
Ovid in the Third Reich
September Song
Funeral Music
The Imaginative Life
History as Poetry
The Songbook of Sebastian Arrurruz

"Accessible is a perfectly good word if applied to supermarket aisles, art galleries, polling stations and public lavatories, but it has no place in discussion of poetry and poetics. Human beings are difficult. We’re difficult to ourselves; we’re difficult to each other and we are mysteries to ourselves; we are mysteries to each other. One encounters in any ordinary day far more real difficulty than one confronts in the most “intellectual” piece of work. Why is it believed that poetry, prose, painting, music should be less than we are? Why does music, why does poetry have to address us in simplified terms, when, if such simplifications were applied to our own inner selves, we would find it demeaning?"
And in response to difficult poetry being undemocratic, he says:
"Democracies go wrong when they are swayed by terrible simplifications. Art that keeps us alive to the moral ambiguities of life is the best protection against the slogans of ideologues and tyrants."

[Uther Pendragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geoffrey Hill was a master poet who wrote wonderful, skillful, beautiful poetry. The poems in this book are no exception: they are thoughtful, well crafted, always excellent.

His poetry is not for everyone. Some people don't like his subject matter. Some people find him too difficult. But if you like his work and you like poetry, he won't disappoint you.

There is a religious theme in most of his work, so when he departs from the overtly religious it makes those poems even more powerful than they otherwise would've been. This book has some of these departures.

From Poetry Foundation:

"Known as one of the greatest poets of his generation writing in English, and one of the most important poets of the 20th century, Geoffrey Hill lived a life dedicated to poetry and scholarship, morality and faith."

[Rob Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very original