Figment

by Rebecca Wolff

Winner of the 2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize, Figment has a vivacity and edge which gives it immediate presence" (Eavan Boland). What is a poem?  Figment suggests myriad possible answers: a post-confession, a remnant lyric, an unerringly wistful invention. Rebecca Wolff makes use of every tool at her disposal to create charming, discomfiting poems, spiked with "shrewd summings-up" and "nervy, controlled lyric bursts"  (Maureen N. McLane, Chicago Tribune ).

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2004

About the author

Rebecca Wolff is the editor of Fence and the author of Manderley, Figment and Continuum. She lives in Athens, New York, with her family and is a Fellow of the New York State Writers Institute.

Reviews

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolff's poetry here is eliptical and often terse: seeming plain language used to evoke the strange or make the everyday weird. Her moreaphoristic poems linger in the mind long after being read, although sometimes this eleptical turn in the longer poems can seem alienating, but do reward close readings and running with assiocations. Wolff's language play and rhythm is subtle but also slightly discordant and can strke some readeres as stilted.

[Heather Gibbons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impressions:

I don't want to like these poems because I'm supposed to like them and I so badly want her to like my poems and put me in Fence one of these days but damn if I'm not liking this book. Feels familiar, but satisfying.

* * *
Well, now I'm feeling the limitations of the book. The music is a bit stilted. I like some of the sounds, but the rhythm is halting. Reminds me of an album where all the songs are in the same key.

[Mary Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are not easily digested or interpretted, but her wordplay and aletness to irony kept me engaged, even if I had to put it down a couple of times.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite books of contemporary poetry. some really killer, fun & not often used words in these poems.