SOURCE: A review of Poems, 1956-1973 and Peppercanister Poems, 1972-1978, in Concerning Poetry, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1981, pp. 131-7.

In the following positive review of Poems, 1956-1973 and Peppercanister Poems, 1972-1978, Broder provides an overview of Kinsella's artistic development and recurring thematic concerns.

Readers unfamiliar with or with only slight acquaintance with Thomas Kinsella’s poetry have with these two volumes from Wake Forest an opportunity to see a fine representative selection of the poet’s work. While Poems 1956–1973 represents a rigorous culling of the earliest volumes, almost all of the poetry Kinsella has published in the last dozen or so years is included. Wormwood is all here (in its heavily revised form): only two poems are omitted from Nightwalker and Other Poems: and New Poems 1973 is complete.

Readers familiar with American editions of Kinsella’s work will be particularly grateful for the second of these volumes, Peppercanister Poems, which...