Powers of Congress: Poems

by Alice Fulton

Powers of Congress exhibits, in dazzling language and complex rhetorical structures, a passionate curiosity about all aspects of modern American life. Sven Birkerts, in The Boston Review , called Fulton a "prodigiously gifted poet," and Powers of Congress more than meets that claim. Back by popular demand, this is a reprint of an important collection that continues to exert a wide influence upon contemporary poetics. It will surely intoxicate all those who love the erotic involvement of language with thought. "She is an ambitious, powerful poet.... She is a thematic gambler of the best sort. Her poems are daring and broad."—Eavan Boland, Partisan Review "Powers of Congress is a rigorous, generous book, by one of the finest young poets in the country."—David Baker, Poetry "In Powers of Congress Alice Fulton shows she's learned a thing or two about levitation."—David Barber, Hungry Mind Review Marketing plans for Powers of Congress
o Newsletter, brochure, catalog, and postcard mailings.
o Advertisements in key literary and trade magazines. Powers of Congress was first published by David R. Godine in 1990. Alice Fulton's other books of poems include Felt, Sensual Math, Palladium , and Dance Script with Electric Ballerina . A collection of her essays, Feeling as a Foreign The Good Strangeness of Poetry , was published by Graywolf Press in 1999. Alice Fulton 's poems appear in five editions of The Best American Poetry series, as well as in The Best of the Best American Poetry . She is currently Professor of English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Genres: Poetry

111 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

For a photo gallery, the story behind the stories, and a reading group guide for The Nightingales of Troy, please visit alicefulton.com

Reviews

[Goodreeds User · Rating 3 out of 5]

The language is so precise but the meanings are vague! I felt a bit lost for half of this, like I had to be there to get it ? But there were some very cool moments too

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of my favorite modern poems can be found in this volume. One of the pleasures of attending Michigan was the chance to meet and converse with this amazing woman, then a faculty member.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fulton comes to the subject of human agency and identity straight from the pages of all the high school textbooks put together. It's a strange clinical treatment of pathos, and I'm not sure I can always buy into it. But at the same time I read it as one of those books that shows how wide the material for poetry is. I guess I would say my impression of this book falls somewhere between impatience, pleasure, skepticism and wonder.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happily revisited this work from a favorite poet.