It would be depressing if the work of Geoffrey Hill, who is unquestionably one of the best poets we have, remained the preserve of specialised criticism, however tenacious and revealing. This poetry does grip the attention, does appeal on a sensuous level, does reward the reader who is not dismayed by still not understanding after many readings.

Taking what is conceivably the "simplest" poem in Tenebrae,… "Florentines" has only five lines, and runs as follows:

        Horses, black-lidded mouths peeled back
        to white: well-groomed these warriors ride,
        their feuds forgotten, remembered, forgotten …
        a cavalcade passing, night not far-off;
        the stricken faces damnable and serene.

Starting (one might reasonably guess) from images of soldiers in a painting—the menace of the bared teeth of their horses caught his eye—Hill goes on to characterise not only the Florentine warriors in the picture but all immaculate and mercenary brutality riding towards...