The popularity of tweet-sized stories (a maximum of 140 characters) and performance poetry videos are just part of a greater literary revolution taking place on the Internet. Not only are more and more people reading fiction and non-fiction online but social media has also made it a whole lot easier and virtually free for any aspiring writer or artist to share their content with the world.
This had led to the creation of a new breed of young poets – Instapoets – who have their admirers or rather followers on social media, anticipating for their every post; one notification at a time. These Instapoets post pictures of their poetry, sometimes handwritten or typed in different fonts, on their social media accounts, which then are liked and shared by their fans. Most of their poems focus on themes revolving around life, love and loneliness.
Interestingly, three of these Instapoets have managed to successfully transition to mainstream publishing featuring in the top ten bestselling poetry books in the US, according to the New York Times.
Lang Leav
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
After publishing her first collection of poems on the Tumblr website in the year 2013, Lang Leav, went on to secure a book deal with a leading US publisher. Her books – Love & Misadventure and Lullabies – are now ranked international bestsellers on Amazon.
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
Tyler Knott Gregson
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
Tyler Knott Gregson is a man of many talents – he is a poet, an author and a professional photographer. He posts a ‘Daily Haiku on Love’ and a poem from his ‘Typewriter Series’ everyday on his different social media accounts. His first book, ‘Chasers of Light’, has also bagged a spot on the top ten non-fiction bestsellers list in the Wall Street Journal.
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
Rupi Kaur
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
Artist Rupi Kaur created quite a stir earlier this year after Instagram took down the pictures she had posted related to period shaming. Her website mentions that she writes about the “experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity”. Her poetry collection, Milk & Honey, quickly became an Amazon bestseller after it was published earlier this year.
(Picture Courtesy: Facebook)
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A Litterateur's take
But do these Instapoems actually possess any literary value? We got Dr. Vidya Premkumar, who is an assistant professor of English Literature at Mithibai College, to take a look at some of these poems and give us some insight.
“Taking from tradition
Many of these poems strongly employ the Japanese haiku form and even at times from the concrete poetry of the 60s. Some of them are in unrhymed or ‘prose’ form too.
Short and sweet
The length of the poems is a major reason for their popularity. Most of them are short so that they don't require time to be assimilated in the daily routines of the audience, who may glance through them while checking Facebook updates or just browsing Twitter or Instagram.
Striking an emotional chord
These poems are personal and immediate, dealing majorly with themes of loss, pain and many a times, alienation. Some of the poems are sharp in terms of imagery and therefore stand out. But many of the works have a repetitive quality about them especially when it's a broken relationship which is being thrashed out. For example, Gregson's love poems are precise and stark. They punch in a whole lot of emotions and ideas in very few words.
Visually appealing
What also makes these poems popular is the visual technique being employed. Since they are uploaded on various SNS sites, they are generally clicked as pictures. Also the visual format is experimented with is quite often. For instance, Gregson types his poems on random sheets of papers like supermarket bills, plane tickets, etc. He is called the typewriter poet. While others like Rupi Kaur draw or doodle their poetry. Some others put up pictures of handwritten poems.
Making poetry popular again
Instapoets have definitely popularised a genre of literature – poetry – which generally has been considered elitist and elusive in its meaning for the common reader. With the use of social media platforms and shorter, more direct forms of poetry, these Instapoets have reached out to an audience who may not even necessarily have regular reading habits.
Reflecting the times
All forms of literature emerge from society and reflect the realities and tastes of that time. So as a part of continuous progression, poetry could not have stayed unaffected by Internet or social networking sites. Instapoets have definitely made poetry more accessible. Though many of the works published online as instapoetry are banal, they still have an appeal for the youth as they easily identify with themes of heart break, loneliness and love. The books published by Instapoets are best sellers, which ratifies this fact. So any new form of poetry emerging may obtusely look like a threat to the traditional forms of poetry and publication, but with time as newer forms emerge this trend would also become a part of the tradition.”
Students speak
Even youngsters studying English literature seem to be welcoming this trend. TYBA student Pranali Kulkarni believes these Instapoems are like a breath of fresh air as the tradition-centered university syllabus does not offer much in terms of postmodern literary work. “These poems are different because they give a message in very simple language. Although, Wordsworth said that Romantic poetry was in simple language, these Instapoems come even closer to the language of the common man,” she says.
Krusha Tankaria, a final year MA student, feels that the realistic touch of these poems is what is making them stand out. “Earlier, there were poems that gave readers a very idealistic view,” she adds. An ardent reader of philosophers like Rumi and Khalil Gibran, she believes that this is a very good platform for youngsters to channel their creativity.
