September Song Poem by Geoffrey Hill
September Song
born 19.6.32 - deported 24.9.42
Undesirable you may have been, untouchable
you were not. Not forgotten
or passed over at the proper time.
As estimated, you died. Things marched,
sufficient, to that end.
Just so much Zyklon and leather, patented
terror, so many routine cries.
(I have made
an elegy for myself it
is true)
September fattens on vines. Roses
flake from the wall. The smoke
of harmless fires drifts to my eyes.
This is plenty. This is more than enough.
Perhaps an alternative title could be “A Death Camp Commander Remembers”. The poem can be read as the recollection of a who escaped post war justice having brutalised a child and sent his victim to die in a gas chamber along with thousands of others. He is smug because he got away with it. There are many such people who quietly gloat over evading retribution for their evil deeds.
Perhaps an alternative title could be “A Death Camp Commander Remembers”. The poem can be read as the recollections of a who escaped post war justice and who, in the autumn of his life, recalls how he brutalised a child and then sent his victim to die in a gas chamber along with thousands of others. He is smug because he got away with it. There are many such people who quietly gloat on evading retribution for their evil deeds.
Geoffrey Hill is the most interesting English poet we have. You can enjoy re-reading his work more than any other simply because it is so layered. Please submit more
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
12/20/2024 8:05:58 AM # 1.0.0
I've read 7 or 8 of this guy's poems onIine and they aII seem trite to me. Why is he Iiked? He evokes nothing in me.