The One Woman Who Ruined Poetry (It's Not Gabbie Hanna) | Video Essay

Why does mainstream poetry feel so different nowadays? How did bad poetry become popular? It might be the fault of just one person--Rupi Kaur. #poetry #rupikaur #gabbiehanna #instapoetry #literature #writing

0:00 Intro--bad poetry on Instagram
2:42 What makes poetry enjoyable?
3:37 What is poetry?
6:31 How to judge the quality of poetry
8:30 What is the purpose of literature?
9:54 Rupi Kaur and Instapoetry
11:43 Analyzing milk and honey
17:39 How Rupi Kaur ruined poetry (sort of)
20:12 How Kaur became famous
22:12 Analyzing terrible published poetry
27:05 Gabbie Hanna
29:53 You can disagree with me

All clips and poems used in this video fall under fair use as they are part of my critique/review.

Editor: Khabi Javan

Music:

[RedPilledAsFuck]

let me try:

“i can’t believe,
you broke our snap streak.
it’s like,
you broke my heart.”

[drumblebee]

i feel like so many people who write this sort pop-lit poetry would be better off getting a diary.

[gracedeace]

A tumblr post I read hit it on the head for me “90% of poetry is Bullshit and 10% of it cuts you to core like a knife, and it’s a different 10 percent for every person”

[LilDP]

"I thought to leave this blank but who am I to name us nothing?"

Instant chills.

[MIKHAELBLACKFYRE]

Poetry is enjoyable when it articulates deep sentiments that I have not yet been able to put into words myself.

[TheMagnificentMrM]

"Learn the rules before you break them" is one of my favorite sayings to live by.

[Alex-lthl]

I work in a bookshop. Our poetry section is tragic, Kaur's poetry make up half of the section. People buy them a lot, and say that they are just starting out with poetry. Kaur is a good gateway poet: you can start with Milk and Honey, just don't end on Milk and Honey.

[prettyroach]

after finding out rupi kaur stole, watered down, and cut off her mentor Nayyirah Waheed it all made sense. Waheed's Salt is powerful because of its poignantly concise yet precise(it went so viral its cheesy now) Kaur's work that tries to sound like it lacks that sense of life and direction

[Kenzthekid]

I wrote an amazing poem in middle school. Here it is.

“There was a pub in Dublin,
That left their bread a crumblin’.
They forgot to add the Guinness they had,
So the crumbs kept a tumblin’.”

Best poem I’ve ever done.

[fuzzyblurrydotcom]

I find it really striking that so many of these less clever poems seem to just be selling bitterness and a paranoid mindset to a particularly vulnerable audience. There's value in expressing trauma no doubt, but take for example the piece about looking through your partner's social media - it's just espousing paranoia with no depth beyond that, and that seems to be a trend. It speaks to me a half-considered worldview, a blurting of emotion onto the page with no consideration for how it could affect either the reader or the writer, no reflection.

[surpwer]

My biggest pet peave is a "poem" that literally is basically a paragraph with arbitrary line breaks to make it look like a poem. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about

[volkov]

I really appreciate videos like this that don't just bash her for being "basic" and "cringe." This actually feels like a layered critique that acknowledges her strengths as well as her weaknesses. Well done!

[ZaharaGamez]

She clearly has some really powerful poems in her arsenal. I wish she would focus more energy on poems like that vs the shallow ones she seems to specialize in. This was a very well put together video essay!

[MoistPinkTaco]

These are "poems" I'd be proud that I wrote in 5th grade

[janson]

I love the “Two bros chilling in the hot tub” meme. It’s so meta and it caught me off guard . First I thought it was really written in the book and that vine was just using one of milk and honey poem. And then research and realize that the tweet is the meme in itself and it fits so perfectly with the poems in the book that I had to question it for a moment. One of the best laugh I’ve got from somewhat an educational video

[nicholsonfile]

"Poetry for People who Don't Like Poetry" is what comes to mind when I think of Rupi Kaur

[Coratlan]

Unironically one of the best poems ive ever read was “When God sings with his creations, will a turtle not be part of the choir?” And it was in response to someone saying a pet turtle doesnt count as “a person named sheldon irl”

[zachzackzak]

Alternate Names for Black Boys is such a perfect example for a poem that breaks form. It is so evocative and so completely a poem while being comprised of short lines that could get mistaken for Rupi Kaur-esque writing to someone not poetically inclined.

[viclenny]

so glad
i found this video,
amongst the other videos,
and decided to watch this one

[quinn-loop]

Just wanted to point out "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks as a good example of how poems can be incredible AND short. (And because I love it and will jump on any opportunity to talk about it.) Every choice and device in that poem is so intentional and evocative it hurts. Ugh, awesome job; I really enjoyed this vid.