"But Ashbery often writes from the position of the slackened mind, billowing with whatever passes through it; Armantrout generally writes in tautened distress, even when she's being funny."
— Chiasson, Dan
Author
Date
May 17, 2010
Metaphor
"But Ashbery often writes from the position of the slackened mind, billowing with whatever passes through it; Armantrout generally writes in tautened distress, even when she's being funny."
Metaphor in Context
Like Ashbery's "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," "Versed" is the kind of crossover book that makes the border disappear. Ashbery and Armantrout do consciousness-depiction, and (since my consciousness is so different from yours) they can be hard to understand. But Ashbery often writes from the position of the slackened mind, billowing with whatever passes through it; Armantrout generally writes in tautened distress, even when she's being funny. It's the mind as problem-solving device, almost as calculator, though it is, of course, most drawn to problems that cannot be solved. Both are poets who appeal to insiders and specialists, but both have made clear how much is gained by putting a riddle in the middle of the culture. That's what getting the Pulitzer has done for Armantrout, and for her readers. Robert Frost had it right: "We dance around in a ring and suppose, / But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." Poets like Ashbery and Armantrout are secret-keepers. For the rest of us, there remains the huge pleasure of supposing.
(p. 112)
(p. 112)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Dan Chiasson, "Entangled: The Poetry of Rae Armantrout," The New Yorker May 17, 2010. pp. 110-2.
Date of Entry
06/10/2010
