This is Peter Davison s sixth book of poems,

and in this substantial, artfully arranged

collection his poems take on a new edge and

a new range: the poems speak darkly but

with humor, out of the mystery but not

hermetic or obscure.

Barn Fever pursues some of the obsessions

of its author s earlier books, among them

the question of how we are to take life s gifts

--the gifts of nature, of talent, of fortune, of

good or bad health, of death. Part One,

"Pastures and Meadows," contains a num-

ber of poems, including the title piece, all

concerned with nature s gifts, what the

Bible calls "the kindly fruits of the earth,"

barns and livestock and wild animals and

weather. Part Two, "The Sound of Wings,"

lifts the eyes somewhere beyond the earth;

these poems, including the long poem "At-

mospheres," take up questions of change

and the changeless and end by wondering

about "all those who learned the secret/

that the seed must be buried to live, / loosen-

ing into vapor,/tightening into snowflake."

Part Three, "Men Working," contains sar-

donic poems about the marketplace and the

roles we are bribed to take in it. Part Four,

"Mixed Blessings," turns to the exaltations

and darkness of modern marriage, modern

love. ~