Canaan Quotes

“Evil is not good's absence but gravity's
everlasting bedrock and its fatal chains
inert, violent, the suffrage of our days.”
― Geoffrey Hill, Canaan: Poetry of Moral Urgency and Historical Witness―Suffering, Martyrdom, and the Millennium

“The risen Christ! Once more
faith is upon us,
a jubilant brief keening
with respite:

Obedience, bitter joy,
the elements, clouds,
winds, louvres where the bell
makes its wild mouths:

Holy Rus – into the rain’s
horizons, peacock-dyed
tail feathers of storm,
so it goes on.”
― Geoffrey Hill, Canaan: Poetry of Moral Urgency and Historical Witness―Suffering, Martyrdom, and the Millennium

“fierce tea making

in time of war,”
― Geoffrey Hill, Canaan: Poetry of Moral Urgency and Historical Witness―Suffering, Martyrdom, and the Millennium

“This half-puzzled, awkward surprise is yours;
you cannot hear me or quite make me out.
Formalities preserve us:
perhaps I too am a shade.”
― Geoffrey Hill, Canaan: Poetry of Moral Urgency and Historical Witness―Suffering, Martyrdom, and the Millennium