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Fever of Unknown Origin

Poems

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Fever of Unknown Origin

By: Campbell McGrath
Narrated by: Campbell McGrath
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About this listen

A collection of profound and piercing poems from a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize about navigating the modern world in search of beauty that will endure

Fever of Unknown Origin opens at a remote crossroads, where the speaker considers the intersection of history, beauty, and destruction: “the past / is paper / and the present, a match . . .” What follows is an urgent tour of landscapes—environmental, political, and personal—that reframes our perception of modern America and leads the listener into “An empire of rags and photons” where we must look to the past to clarify our futures.

With sublime wit and a Whitmanian eye, McGrath delivers a stunning collection of warnings, love letters, and praise songs for all that manages to weather the perennial pressures of time: frog ponds, stadium rubble, and the endless cycle of seasons, which usher us deeper into an era we cannot yet know.

©2023 Campbell McGrath (P)2023 Random House Audio Poetry Themes & Styles United States World Literature

Critic Reviews

“At every moment in these powerful, supple, beautifully meditated poems, Campbell McGrath immerses himself in what he calls the ‘riot of stimuli,’ while at the same time, at every moment, he emerges from his immersions with pellucid images and stunning perceptions and rises into vision, dimension, grace. An astonishing book, capacious and intimate, and one that provokes endless thought and feeling.”
—Vijay Seshadri, author of That Was Now, This Is Then
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