10 Facts About Geoffrey Hill

Sir Geoffrey William Hill, FRSL was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University.

Geoffrey Hill was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England, in 1932, the son of a police constable.

Geoffrey Hill then moved to the United States, to serve as University Professor and Professor of Literature and Religion at Boston University.

Geoffrey Hill was an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford; an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Geoffrey Hill was created a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to literature.

In March 2010 Geoffrey Hill was confirmed as a candidate in the election of the Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, with a broad base of academic support.

Geoffrey Hill was ultimately successful, and delivered his 15 lectures in the academic years 2010 to 2015.

Elegy is Geoffrey Hill's dominant mode; he is a poet of phrases rather than cadences.

Geoffrey Hill indicated that he could no longer draw a firm distinction between "Blairite Labour" and the Thatcher-era Conservatives, lamenting that both parties had become solely oriented toward "materialism".

Geoffrey Hill's style has been subjected to parody: Wendy Cope includes a two-stanza parody of the Mercian Hymns entitled "Duffa Rex" in Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis.