Up to Speed (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

Armantrout, Rae

ISBN 10: 0819566985 / ISBN 13: 9780819566980

Published by Wesleyan University Press (edition ), 2004

About this Item

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 0819566985-11-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Up to Speed (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press (edition )
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819566985
• ISBN 13: 9780819566980
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Corrosive new poems from a poet whose work challenges expectations.

Rae Armantrout's most recent collection of poems focuses on the phenomenon of time, both as lived experience at the start of the 21st century and as a stubborn mystery confronting physicists and philosophers. The poems in this book are polyphonic: they juxtapose the discourses of science and religion, Hollywood and the occasional psychotic stranger. The title poem, which appears in Best American Poetry 2002, leads off with a "sphinx" asking "Does a road / run its whole length / at once? / Does a creature / curve to meet / itself?" Armantrout's work, with its careful syntax bordering on plain speech and meticulously scored short lines, is always struggling with the problem of consciousness, its blindspots and double-binds. The poems whirl like shifting and scattered pieces of the present moment. They attempt to "make sense" of our lives while acknowledging the depth of our self-deception and deception.

About the Author

RAE ARMANTROUT is a professor of writing in the literature department at the University of California at San Diego, and the author of eight books of poetry, including Up to Speed (2003) and Veil: New and Selected Poems (2001).