Known as a literary theorist and critic, Kenneth Duva Burke has written one novel--Towards a Better Life (1932)--and has published poetry throughout a career that has been always controversial, always fascinating. Now in his late eighties, Burke is still active and is gaining increased recognition, not only for his work with literature but also for his epistemology and interpretive methods. Representing Kenneth Burke (1982), a volume edited by historian Hayden White and Margaret Brose, is evidence of Burke's growing influence throughout the humanities and social sciences.

Burke says in the preface to Collected Poems 1915-1967 (1968) that the poems in Book of Moments (1955) are in a roughly backward chronological order, starting with late poems, going on to "some survivals from the Thirties," and ending with early work; but, he adds, "it would certainly not be worth while trying to get them in their exact chronological order...." The poems in...