Written in an accessible style while rehearsing complex arguments about the development of poetic forms, Fierce Lyric evaluates thirty books published between 2020 and 2025, analyzing their value and meaning as examples of lyric poetry. At the same time, Johnny Payne discusses the history of the lyric poem in the West, with some excursions to the East, demonstrating how the lyric form, even more so than the epic or dramatic, proves fertile for a wide variety of contemporary poets. The lyric's metrical, prosodic, and other formal elements accommodate poetry about contemporary views of sexuality, ecological disaster, and ethnic identity. Payne shows that the lyric is mutable, hospitable both to wild experimentation and returns to traditional form, as well as many hybrids in between.

Fierce Lyric combines a firm command of literary history with close readings of recent books, some by winners of national prizes and others by relative unknowns. Payne brings to this project a sense of advocacy, as he writes passionately about poetics and conducts audiences on a lively tour through contemporary lyric poetry.