Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

“An unexpected story and a gem of a book.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The incomparable Campbell McGrath, whom Outside magazine calls, “A writer who could help save poetry from academia and get the rest of us reading it again,” delivers an astounding work: Shannon, an epic poem that traces the remarkable journey of the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The Kansas City Star praises Shannon as, “A luminescent narrative…a myth of American character before its corruption,” and Campbell McGrath—Poet Laureate, Guggenheim Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, and three-time Academy of American Poets Prize winner—proves once again to be truly an “everyman poet” who channels the spirit of Walt Whitman in this lyrical adventure.

From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of george shannon, the youngest member of the lewis and clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days.

The last of the Maha will fade from the earth Vanquished utterly by the Pawnee & after the Pawnee the Sioux may perish & eventually the Kentuckians and Ohioans &c—I doubt not but my countrymen Will populate in numbers these fulsome plains But what untold count Of years & men, of decades & centuries What numberless generations will it require Life by life & skeleton by skeleton To claim this land from the buffalo?

With Shannon, a testament to both natural splendor and human courage, Campbell McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.

“A meditation on a new, westering nation’s discovery of its own inestimable riches....Surely, the sort of task McGrath undertakes here represents one of literature’s profoundest pleasures. A poet tirelessly digs up something buried by days, years, centuries. And then he holds it to the light.” - Washington Post

“An unexpected story and a gem of a book.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“An astonishing facility for evoking sweep and nuance and connecting them to the reader in a refined and absorbing narrative. Shannon is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest of American adventures.” - Post and Courier (Charlotte, NC)

“McGrath treads lightly on philosophy and existential angst and instead turns to something both more modest and stronger, a kind of wry truth wrung out from the dirty rags of Shannon’s wanderings.” - Quarterly Conversation

“A luminescent narrative...the stanza spacing, the line breaks and the quiet rhythms of Shannon’s speech ...suggest the continent’s vastness...Shannon’s understated lyricism — the apprehension of nature before the onset of self-consciousness...reflects heightened maturity in McGrath’s work.” - Kansas City Star

“Faithful to the language, tone, and style of written journals from the time, McGrath’s Shannon glories in the wonder of the land, especially the mystery and majesty of the buffalo, as we readers do in the spirit of the man. . . . Recommended for poetry collections and an illuminating adjunct to American history collections.” - Library Journal

“McGrath takes us back to a pivotal point in United States history through the curious eyes of an unsung hero. [’Shannon’ is] an unexpected story and a gem of a book.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“[SHANNON is] equal parts a hallucination of malnourishment and a meditation on a new, westering nation’s discovery of its own inestimable riches . . . it instills a gradual sense of spaciousness and wonder. . . . Surely, the sort of task McGrath undertakes here represents one of literature’s profoundest pleasures. A poet tirelessly digs up something buried by days, years, centuries. And then he holds it to the light.” - Washington Post