Hill is the author of a poetry collection, has published widely in literary journals, and is an editor for a university publications department. In the following essay, Hill examines "The Forest" as a poem whose effective content is based wholly on its construction—essentially, the meaning derives from the mode.

Occasionally, a poem comes along that is so entwined, so interwoven within itself, that distinguishing content from construction is not an easy task. And when the method works, distinction is neither necessary nor desirable. "The Forest" is one such poem; its language so layered and overlapping that the words call as much attention to themselves as to the message they convey.

If one must whittle this multifaceted work down to an overarching theme, it is this: history gets lost if it is not continuously repeated. The definition of "history" is not as generic as it seems. Here...