SOURCE: "Kenneth Rexroth, Poet," in Ohio Review, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1976, pp. 54-67.

In the following essay, Parkinson discusses the poetry and literary accomplishment of Rexroth through examination of The Phoenix and the Tortoise. According to Parkinson, "To Rexroth poetry envisions and embodies life on a scale and grandeur that none of his poetic contemporaries has attempted to reach."

Many readers have difficulty in disengaging Rexroth as poet from Rexroth as social critic, Rexroth as man of letters, Rexroth as poetic warrior carrying on a vendetta with those who do not see the world of poetry as he does. One distinguished writer remarked scornfully in my presence that he did not consider Rexroth a poet but a politician. In the interests of dinner table decorum I didn't bother to press him to a clearer definition, but the remark was so pejorative in tone that it was hardly necessary. Now the...