In this Book
- Manderley: POEMS
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Illinois Press
- Series: National Poetry Series
summary
Selected by Robert Pinsky as one of five volumes published in 2001 in the National Poetry Series
In the Manderley of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier's forbidding haven of mocking ghosts and secrets that refuse to remain buried, nothing is as it seems. So in this stunning debut collection by Rebecca Wolff, cities, partners, mothers, sisters, friends, and perfect strangers all disguise their true faces, while they who seek connection are "transported from one great gaping / hole in the fabric / of our knowledge to another."
No passage is too dark, no garden too tangled for the troubled dreamer of Manderley. Wolff turns a quicksilver gaze on a fluid world where both the real and the imaginary are transfigured. Tempering steely candor with a sophisticated delight in wordplay, these poems turn on a dime from the sensual to the eerie, the resigned to the hopeful, the comforting to the shocking. Each poem weaves together layers of dream, remembrance, and fantasy, distilling from romantic excess a gritty, spare language of truth-telling and surprise.
In the Manderley of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier's forbidding haven of mocking ghosts and secrets that refuse to remain buried, nothing is as it seems. So in this stunning debut collection by Rebecca Wolff, cities, partners, mothers, sisters, friends, and perfect strangers all disguise their true faces, while they who seek connection are "transported from one great gaping / hole in the fabric / of our knowledge to another."
No passage is too dark, no garden too tangled for the troubled dreamer of Manderley. Wolff turns a quicksilver gaze on a fluid world where both the real and the imaginary are transfigured. Tempering steely candor with a sophisticated delight in wordplay, these poems turn on a dime from the sensual to the eerie, the resigned to the hopeful, the comforting to the shocking. Each poem weaves together layers of dream, remembrance, and fantasy, distilling from romantic excess a gritty, spare language of truth-telling and surprise.
Table of Contents
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- Occasional Poem
- p. 1
- The Royal Begonia
- pp. 2-3
- Tunnel Visionary
- pp. 4-5
- Mom gets laid
- pp. 12-14
- Motion Picture Adaptation
- pp. 17-18
- Conquering Ambivalence
- pp. 19-20
- Interminable Silence
- pp. 21-22
- Letters, Young and Old Poets
- pp. 23-25
- Spring forward, fall back
- pp. 26-27
- The Lowest Common Denominator
- pp. 28-29
- The world is my cloister
- pp. 34-36
- Constant in Opal
- pp. 37-38
- Ashtabula County
- pp. 39-41
- A Syllogism
- pp. 43-44
- Out of Town
- p. 45
- Day Laborers
- pp. 46-47
- Press Play
- p. 48
- Mister Pitiful: A Literary Biography
- pp. 51-52
- Rowena swallows yr. nocturnal spooge
- pp. 53-54
- Chinatown, Oh
- pp. 55-57
- Everything Demystified
- pp. 59-60
- The Sun in Winter
- p. 61
- It all ends in resignation
- pp. 62-63
Additional Information
ISBN
9780252092930
Related ISBN(s)
9780252026980, 9780252070051
MARC Record
OCLC
811409019
Pages
88
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2001