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In this introduction to the works of Pulitzer Prize-winner Kunitz, Orr sets out his major concerns, techniques, and accomplishments. He explores the biographical sources of Kunitz' work, the strategies he uses to convert life into legend, and the theory and tactic of the dramatic lyric which Kunitz practiced and perfected. Orr delves into all the volumes of Kunitz's poetry--"Intellectual Things," "Passport to the War," "This Garland, Danger" "The Testing-Tree," "The Layers" and "The Poems of Stanley Kunitz, 1928-1978"--and presents detailed explications of major poems. He identifies three unifying legends in the poems: the legend of the father, of the mother/beloved, and of the self's being. Using personal history and psychology in his poetry, Kunitz anticipates the confessional poets of a later generation (Lowell, Plath, and Berryman).