Hill is the author of a poetry collection, has published widely in literary journals, and is an editor for a university publications department. In the following essay, Hill examines Pinsky as both a scholar's poet and a general reader's poet, focusing on his declared determination to be both.

When Pinsky handed over the title of United States Poet Laureate to his successor, Stanley Kunitz, in 2000, Pinsky was the first Poet Laureate to have held the position for three consecutive years. While Kunitz was a couple of generations older than Pinsky, his own successor to the post, Billy Collins, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, is a direct contemporary of Pinsky's. Both have long-term ties to the northeastern area of the country, as Pinsky was born in New Jersey in 1940 and now teaches in Boston, and Collins was born in New York in 1941 and still lives and teaches...