If the twentieth century still harbors a major but undiscovered poet, that poet is surely Louis Zukofsky. Not that he has been entirely unrecognized; indeed, early he earned the praise of an older generation of Titans, of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams. Among figures nearer his own age, E.E. Cummings, Sir Herbert Read, and Kenneth Rexroth long and consistently expressed their admiration for his work; and among a generation of younger poets, talents as diverse as Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Hayden Carruth, and Charles Tomlinson have all acknowledged the deepest sorts of indebtedness to Zukofsky and his poetry. Kenneth Cox has said flatly that Zukofsky is the most important poet born since 1900, and similar judgments have been implied by such forceful critics as Hugh Kenner and Guy Davenport. Yet despite the extravagant praises of so many talented poets and critics, Zukofsky's work...