The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth

Polymath, profound, prolific. This volume brings his body of work into one location. A wonderful gift for anyone who wants to be constantly amazed at his breadth and depth of learning and expression. Really defies easy classification. A treasure.

Lovely edition. Great beat poet. You do need some supplementary books to go with it, at least for his Oriental interpretations.

Great stuff ..... except, his numerous volumes of translated poetry, notably from the Chinese and Japanese, are not included here. It might be said that such translations do not constitute Rexroth poems, but there is room for debate here. No translation can be absolutely literal and, even if it is, the style of the original will be lost. No translation can capture perfectly the nuances of meaning expressed by the original. Any translation, therefore, cannot but be an original work, albeit one that is constrained in various ways by the text in the original language. I would, therefore, expect to see the translated poems in a volume that bills itself as the "Complete Poems" of Kenneth Rexroth.As I write, the capacity to "Look inside" this book is conspicuous by its absence. I wonder why?

Great poet - any friend of Dylan Thomas is a friend of mine.precurser to Ginsberg. Great stuff.

Greatest American poet, period.