Artistic difficulty is fine if it's earned, Cameron. If I have to put in the time and effort to grapple with a difficult poem or painting or musical composition, the payoff in terms of enjoyment or other impact had better be worth it.
But I was mainly discussing poets and editors with the attitude, "If you can't catch a Robert Lowell reference without help, you're not worthy to read this." I'm glad we are in agreement in terms of the utility of notes, or at least of references that people can plug into a search engine, if they feel inclined to look something up.
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