Geoffrey Hill delivers inaugural lecture as Professor of Poetry
01 Dec 10
Geoffrey Hill delivered his inaugural lecture as Oxford University’s Professor of Poetry in the Examination Schools on Tuesday 30 November.
Professor Hill, who was elected as Oxford’s 44th Professor of Poetry in June, gave a lecture entitled ‘How ill white hairs becomes a fool and jester’.
Professor Hill discussed the notion of poetry as perjury and quoted from and analysed the structure of lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets and many other texts.
He also told his audience what they should not expect to hear during his tenure as Professor of Poetry. He said: “Poetry in the new millennium is what it is because of what poetry has been ... I believe that contemporary poetry already receives far more attention than is good for it.
'During the tenure of this office I shall recuse myself from reading aloud any of my own work within the University. I’m aware that this position is one of tremendous privilege and influence and to be seen to use it to promote my own poetry would be abhorrent.”
Professor Hill paid tribute to his predecessor, Sir Christopher Ricks, calling Sir Christopher’s election to Professor of Poetry at Oxford “an inspired and inspiring choice.”
Dr David Bradshaw, Chair of the English Faculty Board, said: ‘The lecture was extremely stimulating, provocative, powerful and eclectic. The size of his audience and the sustained applause at the end of the lecture were fitting testimony to Geoffrey Hill’s status as a leading voice in both poetry and criticism.'
Prior to giving his lecture, Professor Hill gave excerpts from an unpublished work in progress to Oxford Today, the University of Oxford’s magazine for alumni.
Professor Hill was elected as Oxford’s 44th Professor of Poetry in June, after receiving 1,156 votes. A graduate of Oxford, Hill read English at Keble College and his prolific and much honoured career as a poet has been accompanied by a series of academic posts at Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge and Boston University. While at Boston he was, with outgoing Professor of Poetry Christopher Ricks, a founding co-director of the university’s Editorial Institute.
