Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner

Versed

by Rae Armantrout

Summary

Armantrout's compact, fractured poems pry at consumer language, scientific discourse, and the suspicions of a thinking mind under late capitalism. Her method is cool and oblique, splicing fragments so that meaning flickers between irony and unease, never settling into reassurance. The book brings the procedures of Language poetry to bear on illness, mortality, and media saturation.

Historical Context & Significance

A rare win for the avant-garde; Armantrout's work is noted for its refusal of easy emotional resolutions.