The Love Poems

by Kenneth Patchen

The love poems of Kenneth Patchen are among the most beautiful and moving celebrations of man's love for woman in any language.

Genres: Poetry

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.

Reviews

[Jennifer Juffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always believed that Patchen, during the time he first began writing, was ahead of his time and his peers.
Reading this book again over twenty years later, I still feel that way about his writing.
He was a poet that not many have heard or read, yet his poetry beats out a rhythm and rhythm that bespeaks and heralds the coming of the "beatnik gen".

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some beautiful stuff here.

[Wherefore Art Thou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely. Not sappy at all, just lightly beautiful.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most beautiful love poems ever. How does he do it? You could surely skip this little collection, though, and go straight for Patchen's collected poems.

[Karlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. Up there with ee cummings and Whitman, Sandburg and WCW imho (or taste).