Spring Comes To Chicago: Impassioned Poetry Confronting American Hungers, Dreams, and Existential Paradoxes

by Campbell McGrath

Capitalism and American Noise introduced readers to the musical, comedic, and impassioned voice of poet Campbell McGrath. Now, in Spring Comes to Chicago, McGrath pushes deeper into the jungle of American culture, exposing and celebrating our native hungers and dreams. In the centerpiece of the book, "The Bob Hope Poem," McGrath confronts the paradoxes that energize and confound us--examining his own avid affection for People magazine and contemplating such diverse subjects as Wittgenstein, meat packers, money, and, of course, Bob Hope himself. Whether viewing this life with existential gravity or consumerist glee, McGarth creates poetry that is at once public and profoundly personal.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Campbell McGrath (born 1962) is a modern American poet. He is the author of nine full-length collections of poetry, including his most recent, Seven Notebooks (Ecco Press, 2008), Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco Press, 2009), and In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, forthcoming, 2012).
Contents

1 Life
2 Music
3 Awards
4 Works
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links

Life

McGrath was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he attended Sidwell Friends School; among his classmates was the poet Elizabeth Alexander. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1984 and his MFA from Columbia University's creative writing program in 1988, where he was classmates with Rick Moody. He currently lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and teaches creative writing at Florida International University, where his students have included Richard Blanco, Susan Briante, Jay Snodgrass and Emma Trelles. He is married to Elizabeth Lichtenstein, whom he met while he was an undergraduate; they have two sons.[1]
Music

In the early 1980s, while a student at the University of Chicago, he was a member of the punk band Men From The Manly Planet.[2]
Awards

McGrath has been recognized by some of the most prestigious American poetry awards, including the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (for "The Bob Hope Poem" in Spring Comes to Chicago, his third book of poems), a Pushcart Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, a Ploughshares Cohen Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award." In 2011 he was named a Fellow of United States Artists.[3]
Works

While primarily known as a poet, McGrath has also written a play, "The Autobiography of Edvard Munch" (produced by Concrete Gothic Theater, Chicago, 1983); a libretto for Orlando Garcia's experimental video opera "Transcending Time" (premiered at the New Music Biennalle, Zagreb, Croatia, 2009); collaborated with the video artist John Stuart on the video/poetry piece "14 Views of Miami" (premiered at The Wolfsonian, Miami, 2008); and translated the Aristophanes play The Wasps for the Penn Greek Drama Series.
Bibliography

Dust (chapbook, Ohio Review Press, 1988)
Capitalism (Wesleyan University Press, 1990)
American Noise (Ecco Press, 1993)
Spring Comes to Chicago (Ecco Press, 1996)
Road Atlas (Ecco Press, 1999)
Mangrovia (chapbook, Short Line Editions, 2001)
Florida Poems (Ecco Press, 2002)
Pax Atomica (Ecco Press, 2004)
Heart of Anthracite: New & Collected Prose Poems (Stride Press, UK)
Seven Notebooks (Ecco Press, 2008)
Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco Press, 2009)
The Custodian & Other Poems (chapbook, Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2011)
In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012)

References

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

wow… lots to process… i didn’t know poetry could do this

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might have had this book for a couple of decades, but hadn't read it (and my copy is even signed to me! Have no idea when that happened). And I like McGrath's work. This is the book that won the big Tufts Award for him, a while before he got the MacArthur Grant. Maybe I was put off by the size of the Big Bob Hope poem that is 80% or more of the book. But, of course, I was wrong.

This is a wonderful book. Filled with all those things that were a part of McGrath's approach for so long (although I'm not sure they still are; things might have been changing around the time he did the big Lewis and Clark book-length poem): often long talk-y lines; willingness to put in lots of quotations, some literary, some not; use of popular culture, etc. What he tries to do is capture the historical moment in America, and he often succeeds. After the big poem, is a small series of three poems, "Pregnancy Triptych," that becomes a path toward hope, however tentative. I don't thing that is a hope tied to the late 90s, but it might be harder to find now.

Here's one long-lined stanza. The poet is talking about those horrible Bob Hope movies, and what they might mean compared to bigger, more iconic American films, signifying "a more ironic archetype, riddled with ambiguity, the understanding of which even now entraps and eludes me,/though I feel I must find my way toward some resolution, because it is my obligation to carry him with me,/to explicate and account for him as I was tutored in a vision of the culture embedded and passed down through iconographic ritual and myth."

Heady stuff!!

[john callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains 3 poems by poet Campbell McGrath. The center piece is the 80 page work "The Bob Hope Poem," a work in many different poetic styles (free verse, haiku, standard unrhymed rhythmic verse, etc.) along with quotations from a variety of books, including some anthropological works such as Marshall Sahlins' Islands of History, and historical works such as William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West,. The poem addresses a thousand or more issues: European colonization of the Pacific islands, early capitalism, capital and money, Chicago, People magazine, blizzards, squirrels, and, of course, Bob Hope.

The greatest strengths of the poem are that it is very accessible, even if you don't read a lot of poetry, that it presents many interesting ideas in original formulations, and humor.

The greatest weakest of the poem, in my opinion, is that the author has a tendency for using too humor, when it is not necessary. It turns into facetiousness at some points.

McGrath won a MacArthur "genius" fellowship; I think that this poem was the reason.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Campbell McGrath was born in Chicago and received his BA from the University of Chicago. While his work these days as a teacher of creative writing and English at Florida International University is more Florida focused in name and writing location, it’s clear from this collection that the seasons and their effects on the poet were still fresh in his mind at the time of the writing. Continuing where Capitalism and American Noise left off, McGrath takes the reader on an American journey. And who best to take them there than one of the great living American poets of our time.

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Campbell McGrath's poetry, so I was surprised at how luke warmly I responded to these poems. Although I appreciate his ability to string out the long Bob Hope poems into this interwoven meditation on American culture, the fact is the poem didn't feel like it went anywhere. At the end of what dominates the book, I was feeling let down, till I read "Pregnancy Triptych." He's always smart, and his ability to weave pop culture, found text, and wry humor into the work is appreciated, but there are stronger McGrath collections.

[T.J. Jarrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Style: masterful
Content: chock-full of now

And yet, somehow, I found myself on my 'Team Dickinson' wagon. All of us lean one way or another... and Whitman, of whom McGrath is obviously descended, has never been my thing.

I recognize great, great work when I read it. It just never hit me where it hurts.

[Samia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book of poems from a former U of C professor. The poems often center around Chicago culture and attractions. The title poem is a refreshing poem that every Chicagoan must read after an arduous five month winter.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I <3 Delphos, Ohio. Second or third time reading this collection. Only the vaguest idea on who Bob Hope was so I definitely carry on missing some references, comfortably saving the option of research for the next go-round.

[Gary McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four words for ya: The Bob Hope Poem.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of McGrath's output, "The Bob Hope Poem" slays.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bob Hope Poem is my favorite poem ever.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Campbell McGrath, AB'84
Author

From our pages (The Core, Winter/14):
http://thecore.uchicago.edu/Winter201...