Frank links to one review saying Alexander’s inaugural poem was “history’s worst inaugural poem” and to another review saying, “It is what one expects from an earnest junior-high-school student with little gift for language, or from a professor at Yale.”

That second post quotes poet Geoffrey Hill, saying society has no use for poets. “The great poet has no social function. The mediocre, yes, he finds himself delivering fashionable platitudes to the public. The true poet is completely isolated.”