Patchen's most important volume, "The Collected Poems of Kenneth Patchen", first published in 1968, received largely positive reviews. A reviewer for the "New York Times" called the book "a remarkable volume" and compared Patchen's work to that of Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, and D. H. Lawrence and also compared it to the Bible. In another review, the poet David Meltzer called Patchen "one of America's great poet-prophets" and called his body of work "visionary art for our time and for Eternity." Like the "Times" reviewer, Meltzer also compared Patchen's work to that of Walt Whitman and to the Bible and also to the writing of William Blake.