Geoffrey Hill has said that some great poetry 'recognises that words fail us'. These essays explore Hill's struggle over fifty years with the recalcitrance of language. He is a poet of phenomenal verbal power who knows the dangers of indulging such power. His poetry draws to light the greatest intimacies and the most stunning and fleeting of his apprehensions. It is also public in its contemplation of ethics, history and politics. His ear for public discourse ranges from seventeenth-century politics and theology to the nightly news and the celebrity-spread. This book seeks to show how all his work is marked by the quest for the right pitch of utterance whether it is sorrowing, angry, satiric or erotic. It shows how Hill's words are never lightly 'acceptable' but an ethical act, how he seeks out words he can stand by - words that are 'getting it right'. 'Acceptable words' begins with an overview essay covering themes and styles across Hill's entire career, followed by a series of essays on the different volumes in chronological order of their first appearance up to 'Scenes from Comus' (2005), concluding with a short 'Afterword'.
The book also includes discussion of some poems yet to appear in book form. This book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date critical work on Geoffrey Hill yet to appear. It aims to contribute something to the understanding of his poetry among those who have followed it for many years and students and other readers encountering this major poet for the first time. | 
