[Barn Fever and Other Poems, Davison's] seventh book of poems, demonstrates his steady growth as a reporter of life fashioned close to the land and the thoughts that arise from such a life. Drawing on his own experiences of living on a farm in Gloucester, Mass., he describes in the title poem the 200-year story of the barn he now owns: "Time and some care have spared this barn, a sign / of the work a farm does to keep itself a farm." Deliberate echoes of Robert Frost reverberate in these country verses—a debt that goes back to family friendship—but Davison is his own man with his peculiar approach and idiom. He writes about cows and sheep, pasture and planting, with the specific knowledge that rural life demands through toil and weather. The poet explores other themes as well: the return of Odysseus, a Jewish heritage, memories...