🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thursday, June 23, 2022 at 12:11:40 PM UTC-4, Will Dockery wrote:
> Leonard Cohen was a poet years before he became a folk singer.
> Nothing you can say will change that fact, Michael Pendragon. 
> 
> HTH and HAND.

On Tuesday, June 14, 2022 at 2:58:26 PM UTC-4, Will Dockery wrote:
> Okay, you seem to be judging a poet's success by the dollar sign.
>

Only to an imbecile who can't understand the concept of *earning a living.*

"...it is incumbent on me to say that I think nothing in this volume ["The Raven and Other Poems"] of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice."
-- Edgar A. Poe

Do you understand what Poe is saying here, Will? He was *unable* to pursue the career of a poet because he was forced to work for a living (as an editor, literary critic, essayist, fiction writer, etc.).

Poe, IMO, was the greatest poet who ever lived. He is certainly one of the best known poets in the world today. Yet Poe did *not* consider himself to have been a successful poet. And the reason he did not, was because he did not have the economic freedom to pursue poetry full time.

His statement has nothing to do with wealth and/or fame, for he continues:

"With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must not — they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind."

Poe believed that he had failed in his dream of becoming a poet because he was financially unable to work at his poetry on a full-time basis -- which success as a poet requires.

Leonard Cohen couldn't find any (financial) success as a poet. So he tried his hand at writing novels, and failing to achieve success as a novelist, he tried his hand at being a folksinger.

His success as a folksinger gave him the necessary financial security, and name recognition, to find (financial) success in the poetry world.