Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Who finds this body

Be it known

My name is George Shannon

& I bequeath my remains

To seed this land

With American bones.

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 16 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, McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.