Climbable

Why isn’t Paul Hullah’s verse better known? He often deals with poignantly transient erotic relationships, within a European tradition that goes back to the troubadours. He does so with modesty and wry humour. His rhythms suggest on one hand rock lyrics, on the other the virtuoso technical versatility of Romantic and post-Romantic nineteenth century writers. But his conversational personality is very much his own. I think that only a very stuffy or bigoted proponent of some other kind of poetry could resist that candid, rueful, singing personality.