Are all poets pretentious?

Question: Are all poets pretentious!?

Is all poetry pretentious!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

No, and no!.
LOL!.!.!.I often split poets and poetry into two categories!.!.!.the likable and the unlikeable!.
Pretentious!? some is!.!.!.those are the poets who read as if they and only they have the answer to everything!. Like their knowledge is something above the understanding of mere mortals!.
Others, like Longfellow and Poe for example, are full of imagery that takes you places, helps you feel things!. Its intense and powerful and you walk away intrigued, mystified, with a different perception to the common, everyday things and happenings in the world!.
The one thing you have to remember is!.!.!.poetry is the view of the poet!. Read a poet that is full of themselves, feels a superiority (for me it would be Neruda), and you get pretentious poetry!. Some would call Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning pretentious, simply because they use such formal, flowery language!. Well, that was what written language was in their time!. It was full of words to evoke feeling and image, it was formal, it was proper!. Heck, the spoken language was like that, too!. Before you categorize something as pretentious, try to see the time and circumstances of the poet!.!.!.if it still seems pretentious to you, so be it!. Its your right as the viewer to feel that!.Www@QuestionHome@Com