Poetry is trending: The rise of #PoetryTok

Over recent years, Tiktok as a platform has grown from strength to strength, and with it so have various literary trends. From Booktok to in-depth analysis’ of classic plays, it was only a short time before our ‘For You’ pages were taken up by carefully crafted poetry. 

TikTok has very quickly become a space for poets to share their work and currently, the #poetrytok hashtag has almost 50 billion views, with its most popular creators growing followings of hundreds of thousands and their dedicated fan bases who wait for their dose of romanticised fiction. But how has TikTok been able to engage a whole new demographic in an art that is often labelled as outdated and dry and who are the creators behind this?

Perhaps the most popular trend amongst #poetrytok is that of short and fast carousels that allow the user to tap through a variety of poems, either written by the account user themselves or simply compiled, that remain artistic in the visuals and acoustics chosen to carry the experience for the audience. The most popular of those are often categorised into themes, often exploring childhood, girlhood, growth or loss and this paired with orchestral audios and film photography creates the perfect user experience, clear to see by those applauding such creations in the comment sections.

The comments sections of these posts contribute to the overall culture within this community to a huge degree; Encouraging vulnerability and growth. Whilst poetry as an art form remains universal and allows the reader to relate to it in whatever way they wish, those that consume it are comfortable with shedding light on details of their personal life and in which way they are impacted by what they read, other users even going as far as to offer well wishes or advice on that individuals experiences.

Hailey, who goes by the username @bringmydreamsalive on TikTok, has racked up over half a million likes through sharing her curated carousels of poetry and says that whilst she enjoys sourcing the poems and the visuals for her social media account, it is user interaction that makes her hobby worthwhile.

“I’m a mother and also at University so I think that I am able to really empathise with a lot of what other people share in my comments. I feel very lucky that they find my space a safe one to be open in.” For example, in Hailey’s most recent post, which has almost 1 million views, the theme is centred around the loss of friendship and there are people in the comments disclosing details of “the end of my 5 year friendship” or revealing that” she outgrew me but I will always miss her”. Hailey hopes to use this platform she has created to one day showcase her own poetry and says that her “community is a reassurance.”

In its history, poetry has not always been as transparent and accessible and it may indicate as to why in this new age it is so widely enjoyed. When we think of poets, the likes of Wordsworth and Keates are obvious. Their position as upper class, white men who had the privilege to explore romance and art in whatever way they seemed fit often secluded the greater general public from following similar paths and whilst characters like this aren’t as prevalent in culture today, there are various ways of thinking that have continued to make poetry an exclusive art form.

The arts remain a luxury within society and we are taught to value practicality over passion. This is before we even touch on the physical barriers that limit people from delving into creative practices such as poetry; Finances, lack of mentorship, and time. Audrey Lorde is a writer and activist who wrote the essay “Poetry is not a luxury” in which she highlights that we are taught to be rational over emotional but really it is the emotions that we unlock through poetry that allows for any truthful rationality. The most poignant line of her piece is that poetry helps us dive into “hidden sources of power”, going on to encourage especially those who are part of marginalised groups to use poetry to validate their feelings.

This is exactly what the TikTok poets of today are navigating towards, as behind every poetry montage or carousel there is also a poet. Audrey Emmett first began sharing her craft on the video platform after spending many years previously sharing on Instagram but “the algorithm wasn’t really working in my favour and I didn’t think that my posts were reaching the right people so during the first few months of the pandemic, back in 2020, I decided to shift my work to Tiktok.” This was whilst Audrey was in school, so the break from education that the Coronavirus pandemic facilitated allowed her to focus more time on her poetry and relationship with the audience. 

“Working on a video format wasn’t something I had done before so I had lots of fun playing around with different sounds and I spent a lot of my time learning to use editing software which meant that I could make pretty montages too, to play behind the poetry.” 

Over the past three years, Audrey has accumulated almost half a million likes on TikTok and has recently published her first poetry and prose book titled ‘Don’t be a stranger’ which has since received a 4.7 rating on Amazon Books. “I really don’t think I would have been able to publish my own book without the help of social media, it gave myself and the publishers reassurance that people cared about my writing.”

Audrey is only one of many examples of ways in which #poetrytok has helped people monetise their art and given them a platform to share their craft. But within this, there is a subsection of poets who prefer to stay anonymous and write their own poems but behind the mask of their internet username, yet this does not hinder their success in the slightest.

@Houseofverse on Tiktok is owned by a male from Arizona but that’s as much as he was willing to reveal. He posts once a day and said that “When I first started this account it was an outlet for me, I had just started my first job after leaving college and was really feeling the pressures of it all.” The anonymous poet finds himself writing in between work and since he started posting over a year ago he is now also engaged and planning a wedding, but even this has not come in between him and the comfort he finds in poetry. “I think that there comes a lot of freedom with anonymity, a space free of judgement and I really can just spill.”

In recent weeks, he speaks of how despite this liberation that comes with anonymous poetry, he has been debating whether to reveal his name and attach it to his work due to talks with publishers, who, similarly to Audrey, want to elevate his work further and help grow a readership outside of social media.

Despite the discourse on how authentic TikTok poets are, whether there is any leverage with posting on social media or even if they can really be called poets, this is not a newfound debate. Whilst TikTok poets are now gaining popularity, social media has housed emerging creative writers for many years. Most famously, Rupi Kaur rose to fame after also sharing her poetry on Tumblr under a pseudonym. She is known her short and direct poems that draw on themes of identity and womanhood and the audience base that she grew first on Tumblr, then Instagram eventually led to her first anthology, ‘Milk and Honey’, making 2.5 million sales and to this day being a bookshelf staple in every young woman’s bedroom.

Tiktok is only the latest platform to give creatives a space to shine. Tumblr, Instagram and even Twitter have taken their turns and nurtured some of the greatest literaries, giving them an audience and often even a career. To put those that enjoy writing poetry in the same space as those that enjoy reading it allows for a supportive community to grow and also gives poetry, as a form of art, a whole new lease of life as it continues to make its way to new generations in new ways.

Feature image of Tiktok and poetry collage sourced from Unsplash.