When poetry is referenced in an academic setting, we are corralled by powerful images of great men, orating tales by the firelight. The night outside is biting and cold, his voice grave and booming. Tales of The Prelude, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats. The figures of their stories seem to dance in the smoke, filling the room and our minds with images of times long past. Perhaps even further back, the oral epic of Homer and Virgil; The Illiad, Odyssey and Aeneid, woven by a travelling bard, tucked by the hearth after a feast of legend. Myths of monsters, gods and heroes thrashing across the Aegean seas, blood pouring across the lands as battles are waged. These are the versions of poetry studied by scholars, from A-level classrooms to dimly lit Oxford libraries. Works of great impact and history. To see this same term, ‘poetry’, be applied to a few lazy lines across an Instagram slideshow is demoralizing to say the least.
Nowadays, when a public figure announces that they are releasing poetry, it brings to mind three basic lines of Rupi Kaur or an autobiographical anthology by Bella Thorne about her latest 'throuple' experience. With the rise of social media and quick scrolling through the miles of content, poetry has also changed. To gain any attention on such fast-moving platforms, it must be quick, widely relatable, and simple. The long metaphors and complex imagery of the great poets are bygone.
Whilst many poetry purists see this new format as a loss of tradition, it is important to remember that we are looking into the past with rose-tinted glasses, ignoring the glaring faults with these so-called ‘great’ men. Unlike the 1800s, for example, People of Colour are now able to write and publish works of their own, opening doors to new realms of creative expression that were previously oppressed in the West. Likewise, women, who would have been largely barred from these fireside readings, can now share their own poetic tales of wonder and intrigue. Whilst educated white men may feel the loss of a great cultural practice, the harsh reality is that many marginalised groups were never privy to these amazing gatherings. The freedom to publish and earn, both on social media and the internet, is creatively liberating for many areas of society that were ignored by the past.
Social media facilitates the dissemination and creativity of a new form of poetry. Usually short, with unrhymed lines and gentle images, accessible to more levels of reader than our older manuscripts. This new verse has its own simple beauty, relaxing rather than accosting our imaginations. It allows the genre to continue to thrive in our current fast-paced world. Simultaneously, the slow, long, complex stories from our past should continue to be taught, lest they become less valuable to new readers who fail to understand their impact on our culture.