Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001–2015

by Rae Armantrout

Rae Armantrout's poetry comprises one of the most refined and visionary bodies of work written over the last forty years. These potent, compact meditations on our complicated times reveal her observant sensibility, lively intellect, and emotional complexity. This generous volume charts the evolution of Armantrout's mature, stylistically distinct work. In addition to 25 new poems, there are selections from her books Up To Speed, Next Life, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winning volume Versed, Money Shot, Just Saying, and Itself. Including some of her most brilliant pieces, Partly affirms Armantrout's reputation as one of our sharpest and most innovative writers.

Genres: Poetry

252 pages, Hardcover

Published August 2, 2016

About the author

Rae Armantrout is an American poet generally associated with the Language poets. Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California but grew up in San Diego. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies. Armantrout currently teaches at the University of California, San Diego, where she is Professor of Poetry and Poetics.

On March 11, 2010, Armantrout was awarded the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for her book of poetry Versed published by the Wesleyan University Press, which had also been nominated for the National Book Award. The book later earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Armantrout’s most recent collection, Money Shot, was published in February 2011. She is the recipient of numerous other awards for her poetry, including most recently an award in poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2007 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

Reviews

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

God, I could read Rae Armantrout all day every day and never get bored. Her brain works in a way completely singular to her; her poems, the same. This is a great selection of her work in the last fifteen years. Too many favorites to list them all, but some favorite passages:

“I know this—
after the first rush
of enthusiasm
any idea
recedes and dims.”—“Dark Matter”

“Complex systems can arise
from simple rules.”—“Simple”

“‘Oh, no thank you’
to any of it.
If you watch me
from increasing distance,
I am writing this
always”—“Anchor”

“If I reveal myself
mercilessly,
what will I not transcend?”—“Mother’s Day”

“‘Poetry wants
to make things mean
more than they mean,’
says someone,
as if we knew
how much things meant
and in what unit of measure.”—“Meant”

[Angbeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

makes the argument for restraint and opacity in poetry like no one else - nice to read when most of what i read (because it's most of what i write) is larger and more confessional. also kind of in awe of her ability to make connections across politics and science and personal experience

[Alicia Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her use of words. And adore that she wrote a poem, "If," about pumpkin lattes.

[Barry Westbrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her poetry is opaque, minimalistic and difficult to understand. I get only glimpses of meaning in her verse in what otherwise appears to be a series of non-sequiturs. That being said I really enjoy it. It appears nonsensical but my guess is she’s speaking to something nonsensical about our culture

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are like dreams that you try to grasp upon waking. I never feel like I get them completely but enjoyed reading them, nonetheless.

[H]

so spare and strange. reminds me of niedecker. i write good poems after i’ve been reading armantrout, which is a ringing endorsement

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Sameen Shakya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2015 by Rae Armantrout is a collection of poems by a poet I have grown to respect more and more the more I've read her works.

Armantrout doesn't write poetry like you would expect. Her poems are short, sharp and witty; not in the mode of Dorothy Parker but an identity all her own. What does she write about? Everything and nothing. Her poems seem to find meanings within rather than without.

I feel like she starts a poem just sitting down and entering the blank page and then discovers the poem while in the process of writing it.

Reading the poem, thus, becomes a strange activity as well. You read the poem not knowing what will happen until it happens and it always happens to you.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astro-Physics of poetry~~

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of poems.