“Calvin Trillin is one of America’s most productive and frequently published poets. When he’s in a pithy mood, he is also, word for word, one of our most highly remunerated. But neither he, nor anyone else, would claim that he is one of our best, and in terms of quality, his verse falls somewhere between that of Alexander Pope and the bathroom wall, generally tending to the latter. He works in what might be called a middle-world of American political journalism.”