Steve Ely on Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns and poems from his own sequence ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’ and his poem ‘Filth as thou art’ from his collection Eely

In this episode, I talk to Steve Ely about Geoffrey Hill’s collection Mercian Hymns and a number of poems from his sequence ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’ and the poem ‘Filth as thou art’ from his most recent collection Eely.

Steve talks about the importance of Hill's work as an 'outlier' poet in the Modernist tradition. He focuses on the form that Mercian Hymns takes - the 'versets' that he himself adopted in his first published book Englaland. He examines three poems in depth - the first and third pieces (that set the tone of the work), and the penultimate poem in the sequence.  He draws out various moments when the history of Offa 'bleeds into' the biography of Hill as it is represented in the sequence. Steve digs deep into the word choices that Hill makes, and the allusive qualities of the text.

He then discusses at length the historical background to his poem 'The Battle of Brunanburh'. He explores the notion that this battle took place in South Yorkshire - and goes on to talk about the various sources that commented on this pivotal moment in history. He reflects on three poems in particular in the sequence - poems I, II and XII.  He describes how he used Mercian Hymns as a template for his own practice of melding historical timelines together. He discusses notions of class and masculinity through the framework of this historical overview. Finally he focuses on the 'dramatic' design of his latest collection Eely - how the book fits together over the course of nearly two-hundred pages.  He goes on to think about the evolution of 'Filth as thou art', touching on the history of the Fens in doing so.  He explores the trajectory of the work - how one idea or reference leads to another thought or image, culminating in his own manifestation as the 'staggeringly-gifted child' which is a nod back to Hill's representation of himself in Mercian Hymns. He ends the conversation by discussing jeans brands from the 1970s - and in particular the desire of owning a pair Falmers.

You can find various printings of Mercian Hymns out there. I first read the sequence in Geoffrey Hill's Collected Poems, published by Penguin Books in 1985.

Steve Ely is a poet, novelist, biographer and teacher of creative writing. He has written several books or pamphlets of poetry, most recently Eely (Longbarrow Press, April 2024), Orasaigh (Broken Sleep Books, August 2024) and an edited anthology, Apocalyptic Landscape (Valley Press, October 2024) . He’s currently working on a critical work, Ted Hughes’s Expressionism, a novel entitled The Quoz, and an infinitely expanding, limitless poetic sequence, Terra Incognito.

'The Battle of Brunanburh' can be found in Steve Ely's second book of poetry Englaland (Smokestack Books, 2015).

'Filth as thou art' features in the final section of Steve's book Eely (Longbarrow Press, 2024) - known as Eelysium -  which you can read more about here.

You can also follow me on X - @cwjoneschris or on Bluesky - @cwjoneschris.bsky.social for more updates on future episodes.

 

Here Steve's poem:

Filth as thou art

The life-or death prerogative power
of Ivan Karamazov's Master of Game,
wolfhounds loosed at the slipped boys scut,
hauled down in the snow and torn in the jaws
of his ululating mother;
                                             gold-rush garimpeiros,
lopping the heads of the Haxi Yanomami,
something about a stolen hammock,
their cleansing from the commons;
                                                                shish kebab
paedos, pimping and raping unlooked-after
AirMax scrubbers - panga wielding paki
ninnies, watermelon smiles.
                                                     Brit White Chief
getting out of hand with his tax-payer funded
Brit White Bird. Well, asked Ivan. What does he deserve?
Boris stopped spaffing and thought for a sec.
To be shot, he muttered. But already his mind
was somewhere else

                                     hunt ball interns,
indigenous schoolies on cigs and free dinners,
wearing Joop and 9 carat Yanomami lip-plates,
the stringbulb flat above Booze n News, choc
klet starfish dripping with garlic mayo -
we're having a gang bang, we're having
a ball, Rita, Sue and PetSu too, Leeds Tiffs
with Sav and Jayne MacDonald: inner sense
doubtful - at that age, from that estate,
at that time in the morning, with the eel fishers
baiting their creels in the boatyard,
eights sweeping the river from Kulmhof
to the Wash, Spinnefix spinning his little white house,
the black band of Florian Geyer. Shot
in the beams of the Rothermere staff car,
which he smashed as he fled, a hole in his head,
to the lays of Ness Ziona

                                             defacing the fly-leaf
Brer Rabbit's a Rascal, 1974:
thank God I was born alive, not dead;
human, not an animal; a boy, not a girl;
English, not foreign; and Yorkshire, South Kirkby,
the Wimpeys - RULE OK! - scoring his hat-tricks,
wheelying his Chopper, 100% on the test,
this Prospero of Osgoldcross, Ariel of Frickley Park:
Kirkby rec Caliban, proud as Punch
in his catalogue Falmers, boss-eyed, club-footed,
man or fish, legged with fins for arms.
The meanest, poorest and commonest sort,
that serve for the profit of conjurors,
and bleed on Dagon's altars.
                                                      Beacons ring
the changes. Bog-bull thumps the level.
Lads rip the pegs on Whelpmore Fen.
Commoner's muck.