SOURCE: Review of Selected Poems, in Critical Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1963, pp. 189–91.

In the review below, Skelton states that while Corso does not control his language, his approach is fresh.

These six authors are neatly divisible into two teams, which we might well call the Bards and the Belligerents. The one group clearly believes that concern for poetry itself, for the shaping of language and the creation of cadence, is a valid reason for making poems. The other group, equally clearly, believes that each poem must arise from concern with the human predicament, and from observation of the phenomena of our time. Each group has its weakness, of course. Vernon Watkins, an elder member of the Bards, can become prolix and pretentious because of his interest in the tunes he plays. Norman McCaig can allow his fascination with the vividly metaphysical exploration of visual detail to produce poems...