Title: The Holiness of the real
First published: 1996
Description: The title of the book, "The Holiness of the Real," is a key phrase from "Time Is the Mercy of Eternity," one of Rexroth's finest nature-meditation poems. The phrase underscores the essence of Rexroth's work at its best - his capacity to meditate on, celebrate, and articulate love, nature, and political experience with a unique numinosity. Reading his work, one comes to realize that what is real or authentic, rather than being marginal or preternatural, is everyday and "normal," but "normal" in the visionary sense in which the diurnal and customary are perceived by someone who has undergone a revelation or "shock of recognition." What Rexroth's most accomplished verse and poetry convey is this recognition of how profound, stirring, and contenting the fundamental rounds of life and experience can be, despite living in what Raymond Aron has termed the "century of total war."

The book is divided into six chapters. The first, following a preface, is a general introduction to Rexroth, covering his career and cultural position in American society, his prosody, influences on his verse, theorizing on his poetics, and speculation about why he has been ignored by the literary canon makers in academe and elsewhere. The next four chapters deal with large and basic subject categories in Rexroth's verse: nature, political, love, and love-nature verse. The final chapter provides an overview of Rexroth as a literary and social critic-journalist, amplifying the sense of his scope as an intellect and personality. A brief conclusion follows.
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation, Lyrik, Critique et interpretation, Rexroth, kenneth, 1905-1983, American poetry, history and criticism, 20th century
People: Kenneth Rexroth (1905-)
LC classification: PS3535.E923 Z74 1996