SOURCE: "Robert Burns," in The Elastic Retort: Essays in Literature and Ideas, The Seabury, 1973, pp. 72–6.

Rexroth was one of the leading pioneers in the revival of jazz and poetry in the San Francisco area during the 1940s and 1950s. His early poetry was greatly influenced by the surrealism of André Breton, but his later verse became more traditional in style and content, though by no means less complex. However, it was as a critic and translator that Rexroth gained prominence in American letters. As a critic, his acute intelligence and wide sympathy allowed him to examine such varied subjects as jazz, Greek mythology, and the Kabbalah. As a translator, Rexroth was largely responsible for introducing the West to both Chinese and Japanese classics. Below, Rexroth describes Burns as a rebel, attributing his frustration to the "conflict between his situation [as a working man and his potential [as a...