Poetry has experienced many evolutions throughout its history. The latest one comes from a wave of new poets known as Instapoets. These writers are known for their short and minimal poems that are posted on Instagram. Although Instapoets have garnered fans across the world, they receive large amounts of backlash, which has resulted in a “Instapoets vs. the People” type of environment within the poetry community.
The most notable poet is Rupi Kaur. Her debut poetry collection “milk and honey” touches on self-love and tackles tough subjects such as sexual abuse. It became a New York Times Bestseller and managed to sell over 2.5 million copies. What sets Kaur apart from your typical poet is that she mirrors her Punjabi roots by following the rules of Gurmukhi script. This explains why she never uses capital letters and exclusively uses periods.
Kaur also provides an illustration that displays the poem in a more visual manner. Examples of her work are: “our backs/tell stories/no books have/the spine to/carry”, and, “stay/i whispered/as you/shut the door behind you”. This style has gained its own following, as seen in other Instapoets’ work. But it has received backlash because of its simplicity, which some claim is a threat to the art form.
Criticism comes from the lack of substance and form in Instapoetry. The poems are extremely readable. A subject would be presented, but the poem abruptly ends before the poet further explores the idea. Bagheera makes her opinion crystal clear on the website bagheerabsc, of Birmingham-Southern College. She said, “Possibly, people aren’t used to this new form of poetry because only recently has the art of poetry been dumbed-down enough to where this type of simple writing is acceptable and even praised.”
The constant use of line breaks and simple phrases among Instapoets have paved way for satire such as,
“i was
despacito
and you were
alexa
and you
played me.”
- scintilla
As you can see, it takes little to replicate the Instapoetry aesthetic. Is it fair to say that Instapoetry is the stickfigure of the poetry world? Or is it a new artistic expression which people have not yet accepted?
Rupi Kaur responded to the backlash during an interview with NPR. “...we have a form of art that is highly, highly traditional… then you have this other thing, which is new and quite nontraditional, which is, of course, social media. And so the gatekeepers of these two things are kind of confused at this moment.”
It isn’t fair to bring down Instapoets because they don’t “meet” the standards of what poetry traditional is? They are still following the fundamentals of poetry.
E. Ce Miller added her take on the website, Bustle. “These Instapoets are also meeting a certain set of values held by the modern reader — in the same way that poets like Frost, Whitman, Eliot, Keats, Plath, and Ginsberg engaged the values of the poetry readers of their respective generations.”
There is truth to what Miller is saying. Instapoets are held to the expectations of old poetry such as Shakespheare and E. E. Cummings from our English classes. The school curriculum rarely studies other forms of poetry like spoken word or rap. Instapoetry is simply another piece of the puzzle.
It’s time to stop using Instapoets as a punching bag and start thanking them for making poetry more accessible to the new generation. Nearly all Millennials and members of Gen Z use Instagram on a daily basis. They may stumble across Instapoetry on their explore page and immerse themselves in an art form that they might not consider looking at before.
Instapoets do not pose a threat to poetry, nor are they elevating the art form. They are simply doing what every poet does, use words to evoke feelings and stir the imagination.
The most notable poet is Rupi Kaur. Her debut poetry collection “milk and honey” touches on self-love and tackles tough subjects such as sexual abuse. It became a New York Times Bestseller and managed to sell over 2.5 million copies. What sets Kaur apart from your typical poet is that she mirrors her Punjabi roots by following the rules of Gurmukhi script. This explains why she never uses capital letters and exclusively uses periods.
Kaur also provides an illustration that displays the poem in a more visual manner. Examples of her work are: “our backs/tell stories/no books have/the spine to/carry”, and, “stay/i whispered/as you/shut the door behind you”. This style has gained its own following, as seen in other Instapoets’ work. But it has received backlash because of its simplicity, which some claim is a threat to the art form.
Criticism comes from the lack of substance and form in Instapoetry. The poems are extremely readable. A subject would be presented, but the poem abruptly ends before the poet further explores the idea. Bagheera makes her opinion crystal clear on the website bagheerabsc, of Birmingham-Southern College. She said, “Possibly, people aren’t used to this new form of poetry because only recently has the art of poetry been dumbed-down enough to where this type of simple writing is acceptable and even praised.”
The constant use of line breaks and simple phrases among Instapoets have paved way for satire such as,
“i was
despacito
and you were
alexa
and you
played me.”
- scintilla
As you can see, it takes little to replicate the Instapoetry aesthetic. Is it fair to say that Instapoetry is the stickfigure of the poetry world? Or is it a new artistic expression which people have not yet accepted?
Rupi Kaur responded to the backlash during an interview with NPR. “...we have a form of art that is highly, highly traditional… then you have this other thing, which is new and quite nontraditional, which is, of course, social media. And so the gatekeepers of these two things are kind of confused at this moment.”
It isn’t fair to bring down Instapoets because they don’t “meet” the standards of what poetry traditional is? They are still following the fundamentals of poetry.
E. Ce Miller added her take on the website, Bustle. “These Instapoets are also meeting a certain set of values held by the modern reader — in the same way that poets like Frost, Whitman, Eliot, Keats, Plath, and Ginsberg engaged the values of the poetry readers of their respective generations.”
There is truth to what Miller is saying. Instapoets are held to the expectations of old poetry such as Shakespheare and E. E. Cummings from our English classes. The school curriculum rarely studies other forms of poetry like spoken word or rap. Instapoetry is simply another piece of the puzzle.
It’s time to stop using Instapoets as a punching bag and start thanking them for making poetry more accessible to the new generation. Nearly all Millennials and members of Gen Z use Instagram on a daily basis. They may stumble across Instapoetry on their explore page and immerse themselves in an art form that they might not consider looking at before.
Instapoets do not pose a threat to poetry, nor are they elevating the art form. They are simply doing what every poet does, use words to evoke feelings and stir the imagination.