In the following essay, Goldensohn hails Pinsky as "one of the most sophisticated technicians of his generation and perhaps one of its finest poets," examining the range of Pinsky's reach into the larger literary culture through his work in poetry and prose.

If there is a consistent ground rule for Robert Pinsky's poems, early to late, it is that apparent simplicity is the invitation to troubling complexity. It is an attractive movement of the mind, finding exceptions to simple rules, unexpected textures to smooth surfaces, division and ambivalence to simple feelings. And the strategies are abundance, surprise, and variations on a theme. In "Poem about People," the first poem in his first book, Sadness and Happiness, what begins as genial and compassionate people watching—

Balding young men in work shoes
And green work pants, beer belly
And white T-shirt, the porky walk
Back to the truck, polite...