Art For Art's Sake?

But even a poet must eat to survive, I had to forcefully declare, Unfazed by an old friend’s insistence to write just for art’s sake; Gone are the days when poets created just for the sake of creating And past are the times when art and economics were mortal enemies, So the artist must grab all opportunities to profit from his artistic abilities. Milton and Shakespeare might have written just for the sheer love of writing And Poe wrote Annabel Lee only for the sound of the beautiful maiden’s name; In this age of high inflation, skyrocketing costs of oil and every prime commodity, Sorry, buddy, art for art's sake just would not cut it for poor poetic-capitalistic me!