Clojure is just so coupled with the host language. Which isn't a bad thing, since it helps make interop effortless, but does make it difficult to appreciate as a standalone language.

I first tried to learn Clojure before I knew anything about Java and things like error messages made it really difficult to get started.

Coming back after having written Java professionally for a year, things like random Java exceptions showing up or long stack traces suddenly became a lot more tractable, although still not "beautiful".