Name: The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy
ISBN: 9780195035155

Geoffrey Hill

A long poem considers the life of French poet, Charles Peguy, who was killed during World War I

The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy

Donald

Now here is a poem! This has to be the best long poem in English since Eliot's Four Quartets (William Logan says so too).

I read it twice today. Would have been happy to read it three or four more times. It was gratifying to see how many of the French references I knew – and frankly exhilarating to read a long poem of such power and beauty. Hill is a notoriously "difficult" poet, which is true, I guess, but I think you can enjoy this without fishing for all the references. His notes and short bio of Péguy at the end fill in a lot of the blanks, so I recommend reading it through once without worrying about what you miss, then read his notes/bio and look things up before rereading.

Thank you to the late Geoffrey Hill for this amazing poem and for teaching me a new word: contumely (ˈkäntyo͝omlē, noun, insolent or insulting language or treatment).

The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy

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