It is true that he has been one of the inner circle of the 'Beats' from the first, but many admirers of his poetry feel that it belongs quite as much to other and older traditions in world literature.One of these is the revival of pure poetry whenever an original be it Rimbaud or Whitman has broken with current verse conventions to give free rein to the magic of language. Another is that ancient pre-occupation of poets the sense of the immediacy of death. Like Villon or Dylan Thomas, Corso lives close to the mystery of death. It is, perhaps, his central theme, on which variations ranging from...