The Virus

“The Virus” is a poem by the American poet Jericho Brown. It was published in his third poetry collection, The Tradition (2019), which received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The Pulitzer jury called it “a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence” (2020 Pulitzer Prizes). The poems address the themes of blackness, queerness, legacy, racism, and living with an incurable illness, among others. In this poem, the virus itself speaks to the person whose body it infects. Its message is that, while it has been suppressed by medication, it still lurks in the victim’s body, with the intent to harm them, both physically and mentally. While the virus is not named, some details in the poem and the facts of the poet’s own life make it clear that it is HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Although it focuses on an individual’s struggle with a disease, the poem also evokes a broader historical struggle against oppression and injustice. This blending of personal concerns and social issues is characteristic of Brown’s poetic voice throughout the collection.

Poet Biography

Jericho Brown identifies as a black queer poet, whose work explores his own life at the intersection of marginalized racial and sexual identities, as well as social and cultural circumstances that oppress and endanger these minority groups. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans and a doctorate in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. In addition to the 2020 Pulitzer Prize he won for The Tradition, he is a recipient of several other prestigious awards, including the American Book Award for his first collection Please (2008), the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his second collection The New testament (2014), the Whiting Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and popular magazines, such as The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. Several poems have been included in various annual editions of The Best American Poetry. Brown is a professor of English and creative writing at Emory University. In 2021, he was inducted to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

Jericho Brown’s birth name was Nelson Demery III. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1976 to working-class African American parents. His childhood was marked by his parents’ deep religiosity and his father’s outbursts of domestic violence. As Nelson began to accept his homosexuality in his twenties, he became increasingly alienated from both his parents and the Baptist Church to which they belonged. He published his early poems under his birth name, but he considered changing it in part to distance himself from his father, Nelson Jr. In 2002, he had a dream in which he responded to someone calling out the name Jericho. Soon after, he adopted the name Jericho Brown. In 2002, Brown was also diagnosed with HIV, which he kept secret for years, until poetry helped him to accept it and speak out about it in order to help others also struggling with shame or stigma surrounding this medical condition. At the same time, Brown’s work became ever more involved with the issues of racism and racial justice, which are essential in his poetry.

Poem Text

Brown, Jericho. “The Virus.” 2019. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

“The Virus” is a persona poem, in which the poet creates a character who is the speaker of the poem. In this case, the virus itself is personified and addresses its victim (for more about personification, see Literary Devices). The virus admits that it is weak and unable to kill its victim or destroy their eyesight. The infected person can see the flowers they planted outside their window. The virus wishes it could kill the flowers because it wants its victim to know that it is still there inside the victim’s body, invisible and diminished but still threatening and disturbing. Since it cannot kill any longer, the virus wants to agitate and disquiet its victim so that it can diminish their joy in watching the flowers, and thus their joy in life itself.