What do you say about a book or poem?

[M]y poorest grades in college had been in English classes; I rarely found anything to say about a book or a poem other than "It’s beautiful" or "It's really not very good."

Mark Oppenheimer, "Bright Union Years: A Graduate Student’s Ambivalent Journey, American Scholar, v.72 n.2, spring 2003, at 17, 21.