Wobble (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

by Rae Armantrout

Hardcover, 2018

Call number

811 ARM

Collection

Publication

Wesleyan (2018), 160 pages

Description

"Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Rae Armantrout is at once a most intimate and coolly calculating poet... Her language is unexpected yet exact, playing off the collective sense that the shifting ground of daily reality may be a warning of imminent systemic collapse. While there are glimmers here of what remains of the "natural world," the poet confesses the human failings, personal and societal, that have led to its devastation. No one's senses are more acutely attuned than Armantrout's, which makes her an exceptional observer and reporter of our faults. She leaves us wondering if the American Dream may be a nightmare from which we can't awaken. Sometimes funny, sometimes alarming, the poems in Wobble play peek-a-boo with doom"--

Library's review

As the Beats of the 50s faded and the late 60s ushered in the "Language" (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) poets, a new focus, perhaps, was achieved that looked at language-meaning-as-construction, implicating the reader as proactive mediator... or, we can just sit back and enjoy the poetry...
"Look,/ in this
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spread/ for leather products,/ a stern-faced man/ in pink pants/ and a bomber jacket/ stands on satin sheets/ in front of a leopard print/ wallpaper/ holding a small briefcase/ or purse.// The market hates you/ even more/ than you hate yourself." (Brian)
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User reviews

LibraryThing member Dreesie
I understood very few poems in this collection and liked even fewer. For the most part these poems are very choppy. Most of the poems have a title, and then a few phrases making a sentence, then a break and another set of phrases that connects to the title maybe but not the first section, and the a
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third section.

Not my cup of tea at all. I can't link the sections together, and most of the time I didn't know what she was getting at. I prefer poetry about experiences or nature, not about...thoughts?

I did like:
Silos
Tunnel Vision
Refresh
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Awards

National Book Award (Finalist — Poetry — 2018)

Pages

160

ISBN

0819578231 / 9780819578235
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