Hearts of Stone, Feet of Clay: Geoffrey Hill’s Troubled Pilgrims

Through close readings of “The Bidden Guest” and the sequence “Lachrimae,” this essay explores ways that Geoffrey Hill portrays the travails of modern “pilgrimage,” as a troubled quest for authentic faith. At the forefront of this study are questions about Hill’s treatment of Christian themes and practices through the voices of his personae. One larger question concerns whether these poems bear witness to a faith still viable for disaffected contemporary readers. It is argued that, while the mood of Hill’s pilgrims registers an anxious ambiguity about the prospects of personal belief, the effects of the poetry provoke a renewed attentiveness to that very possibility.