Friday 3 December 2010

Geoffrey Hill - 'September Song'

I think there is quite a lot to this poem in the smallest phrases. It was the third or fourth time I read it I really noticed the phrase 'passed over' in the first stanza. The Jewish festival of Passover remembers the escape of the Israelites from captivity coinciding with the last of God's plagues in Egypt, where the first born sons of the Egyptians were killed and the angel of death 'passed over' the houses of the Israelites. I think that both are seen as atrocities; the holocaust and the last plague and Hill's poem shows an ironic reversal of the biblical event.
Also, the second stanza with phrases like 'As estimated, you died', 'patented/terror' and 'routine cries' expresses the systematic nature of the holocaust. The nazis believed the 'undesirables' to be a problem and tried to implement the most efficient method of extermination. The above phrases pair the reason on the side of the nazis with the emotion on the side of those targeted.

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