Touch

Contains poem "Misanthropos," which critics have called Gunn's most ambitious poem.
*Originally a single short poem, Gunn realized it would have to extend into a long poem in order to fulfill his desire to express "a complete attitude to experience". The poem was initially titled "For the Survivor." Other titles Gunn considered were "In the City of Kites and Crows" and "From the Green Tower." Although Gunn began work on the poem while he was residing in San Francisco, he completed it while he was in London from mid-1964 until mid-1965. It was first published in the August 1965 issue of Encounter and subsequently appeared in Gunn's next collection of poems, Touch (1967).