I had the same problem with Catch 22- but the audiobook is amazing. It's on youtube, and it really brings the book to life in a completely different way to reading it.
You know what? You've finally gone and done it. You've finally inspired me to write my own poem. At least I can try to do better than this guy, right? "You are not the stars in the sky. You are not the sun or the moon. You are not a spring meadow. You are not a blossoming flower. You are not a spiritual experience. You are not my world. You are more. You are more than the majesty of every nebula and supernova in our galaxy. You are more than the joy of an endless springtime field of dazzling blue bonnets. You are more than the indescribable nature of a life-changing epiphany from the Universe. You are Everything."
I have a little brother named Atticus who vocally protests his hatred for writing and reading poetry. For a second I genuinely thought my twelve year old brother was secretly writing bad poetry.
Yes! The dusk poem, while it’s a weak start, would still be so interesting. Like Rachel said, he could have explained what disk meant to him, about the day being over or whatnot, or maybe how it might be cold, or how the water seems calmer at dusk in the beach or just….something additional, you know? In a way, they feel more like prompts to write a poem about versus being actual poems
Right! Like using a forest as a metaphor for love is a really interesting concept; forests are beautiful, but they can also be dark, and you can get lost in them. And I find it interesting how he writes that she almost forgets that she’s “real”, which sounds almost arrogant coming from someone who likely pictures himself as the “he”, but it could also be a way of describing how you can be so enveloped in your feelings that you get lost in a moment, and forget about anything outside of that. There’s so many directions he could go with that poem, and a really interesting metaphor to be explored, and then it just *ends,* and it’s like he didn’t even know about any of that.
Agreed! When some of my friends tell me they like his poetry I can never understand their reasoning even though I believe art is subjective and anyone can theoretically enjoy anything
All of the women in Atticus' poems sound really lonely. There's no interaction between the narrator and Her. She's a queen in a castle. She's standing alone in a forest. She's a lone rose in an empty field. Poor thing doesn't seem like she's having any fun at all.
In fairness, you can say the same about poets like Francesco Petrarch. The difference is that most of Petrarchs sonnets are concise ideas well-expressed with expressive language. Atticus is just too shallow and short for the basic language he uses
@@bad-girlbex3791 Let's not pretend men are any better. Atticus is the type of shit men who like to feel cool and different, but aren't smart enough to actually understand the actual high-brow shit. It's poetry for Joe Rogan fans and frat boys.
I think that poetry -- both good and bad -- still springs from the mystical wellsprings of the human soul; hence poetry which is heart-stoppingly bad can be assumed to come from a human being.
The fact that I gaslighted myself into thinking I'm like the shittiest poet because these people were famous and my style of poetry is bit old style still amazes me lol
A girl in my creative writing class told everyone she loved Rupi Kaur's poetry and wanted to write like her. Luckily she couldn't hear my exasperated "Jesus Christ" from where she was sitting.
Atticus is the frat boy drunkenly babbling at a girl, hoping that enough empty compliments will woo her into sleeping with him, and we are the girl slowly backing away, hoping our awkward no's are just polite enough that he doesn't touch us... or puke on our shoes. I feel like that was more poetic than anything he's ever said ever.
@@MrUndersolo No, that "one girl" forms a majority. A woman would rather be with a creep that makes them feel something than a good guy who makes them feel nothing.
@@nathanflores1974 and gives such an excellent word to something that definitely is a thing. Rupi Kaur comes to mind, work that’s more anecdote than poetry, but not quite either.
Can i just say, i actually love the term "word doodles" - i often write little word doodles that look and sound nice, just for fun. I always save them in case i want to expand them into a poem. But its fun to write out pretty phrases and whatnot, but i pretty much don't ever call it poetry; so i like Word Doodles as a term! ETA: i remember some years ago, I was following as many poets as i could on tumblr. I think one was atticus (not sure if he had a tumblr or not, but i have seen his name on tumblr), but i cant remember. I ended up unfollowing over half of them because of how vapid their poetry was. There was nothing to distinguish individual style, so they all they ran together and seemed like they were written by a couple of people instead of like 20. I found it very frustrating to wade through all these empty little quatrains, or if they were feeling crazy, 2 stanzas, and try to get something out of it.
Art youtuber Peter Draws sometimes writes what he calls a “wordle” where he basically writes a really long nonsensical sentence - not really paying attention to what the words actually mean, just stringing them together so that they sound good, like drawing a shapeless abstract doodle. I’ve found it to be a great exercise for improving your sense of poetic rhythm, but honestly I would consider Peter’s wordles poetry in their own right. I’ve listened to “loiterous boy” so many times now. (Peter has also written some actual poetry which pops up in his sketchbook tours from time to time)
I remember doing something very similar in junior high, just with stories. It was so much fun to just make up a little fantasy scenarios without having to worry about making it fit into a storyline.
Given how instagram favours pretty things (clothes, meals, cars, landscapes, cities, even people ffs), I don't find it at all surprising that instagram poetry is as successful as it is. It's just scirbbles of pretty words without any meaning or even effort, which perfectly reflects what instragram is about: looking pretty, no matter what it is. No depth, substance or meaning needed. Great video as always, Rachel! I really enjoy the more lengthy ones :D
My poetry class this past semester kicked my ass. Writing poetry with meaning and not making it too vague or nonsensical or overly flowery etc is really really hard! I’m not particularly happy with most of my poems throughout that process, but I was still given high marks for my effort. I’m Going to keep trying to write good poetry in the future!
I took a poetry class some 20 years ago in college (Jesus Christ I feel old). That class was enough to me to drop English from a major to a minor, and make very clear I am NOT a poet.
Rachel was determined, a video to make, She searched and scoured, for poetry's sake, Through the worst, her emotions she drug, Perhaps now she needs to give Kyra a hug.
I've been silently hoping for you to discuss Atticus' poetry for months now and I nearly screamed when I saw this in my subscription box! Can't wait to watch the video and hear your thoughts on this topic!
I really like the concept of "word doodles." It undermines a lot of the seriousness surrounding the act of writing, which I find limits my ability to freely work in the medium.
I adored Atticus around the ages of 18-20 (never got around to buying any of his books though, thankfully). Speaking from personal experience, he definitely capitalizes off the fad of shallow instagram poetry and instagram’s biggest audience: teenage/ya girls who want an abstract guy to fantasize about falling in love with them
I feel like I'd be more forgiving of Atticus's poems if he just tweeted them or posted them online. That wouldn't make their quality any better, but they would be something he made casually is his spare time and shared freely to express himself. The fact that he published these poems in a book as a product to make money off of makes me much more frustrated by how lazy they are.
I wanted to get into poetry a year or so ago, so I looked up "modern poetry collections not about romance" (I'm aro ace) I was recommended Atticus and Rupi Kaur from some blog post. Very not what I asked for, very boring, I hated it. It took me several more months for me to recover and pick up Margret Atwood's poetry. That was more my speed.
fellow aroace here!! Mary Oliver’s poetry has been deeply inspiring/healing for me in seeing hope in the world without having romance be the end game, if you’re still looking for recs. I felt this comment on a spiritual level though omg
Shameless self promote, but I am ace too! And often write about it, plus some other topics. Though I also write break up poems, so not everything might be your cup of tea
I said this in the live chat, but Atticus is just utterly, utterly insufferable to me and I could spend ages writing about how entitled men discover colorful metaphors about nature and think they’re the modern reincarnation of Robert Frost. I loved the part about how aphorisms were always part of a larger, beautifully written work, because it’s so true; I feel like so many Instagram poets see Oscar Wild aphorisms in Instagram posts and think that’s all poetry is and are like “pfft, I could do that better”…not understanding that poetry is so much deeper than just sprinkling a bunch of female pronouns amidst talking about constellations and forests and calligraphy. However, there is a poem I do quite like from Atticus, not sure if it’s just because in comparison all his other work that makes me want to tear my hair out it actually rouses something out of me. “To me, she was, Those final steps The turn around the last bend The house, With a light on, And a fire lit, And a faint laugh in the distance on the warm wind. That was she. She was my always coming home.” Obviously there are mistakes galore: the sheer amount of needless commas (“the house, with a light on, and a fire lit” like did no one proofread this?) and the idea of a fire being lit when there’s supposed to be “a warm wind” outside. Plus him spelling everything out at the end as though his readers are too stupid to understand (which. Honestly some of them might be). However I like this because it creates a sense of walking home, of expectation, of both the comfort and excitement knowing that someone you love is waiting for you. I absolutely love that feeling in romantic love, the quiet joy of knowing you have someone to come back to at the end of the day-even if it’s not in person, maybe it’s being able to call them or text them after a long day and finally wind down-but the comfort and familiarity you have with the person you love being captured in a description of walking home to see them. “Those final steps, the turn around the last bend” builds the feeling of anticipation, of /almost there/. It’s such a lovely idea, and while it’s not perfect I love the scene and feeling it captures. Too bad the rest of his poems are so utterly dry and lazy in comparison.
Robert Frost's "Stopping by woods at evening" is really great. When I read it, I was filled with hope and a sense of adventure. Then I read the discussion online, and everyone was like "yeah this is about suicide". Like, wtf?! That really taught me something about myself, and about art in general. If it's good, it can mean very different things to different people, depending on what kind of person they are.
@@Nerobyrne When I was taking a lit class, we had to read certain poetry and post on a discussion board about it. One of the poems I read came off as clearly about abuse, with the light hearted tone sharply contrasting with dark themes, and so I wrote about that, and when I could see my classmates' responses they had written the exact opposite as me. It was quite shocking.
The "poem" at 45:25 immediately made me think about John Keats' sentence to Fanny Brawne : “I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” I wonder if Atticus was inspired by it or it's just a coincidence.
When you read the second Atticus poem and got to the "Calligraphy of her soul" bit I let out a big audible "Ew." Atticus is like the worst version of a nerdy teenager in the drama department who thinks his putting women on a pedestal and ignoring everything about them makes him uniquely equipped to speak on the topic of romance.
A friend bought me an Atticus poetry book. I think it was called Love Her Wild or something like that? I laughed while reading cuz those weren’t poems , those were tweets. lol I’m in love w your jacket btw please tell us where u got it 🥺💓
What makes me feel weird about his poems about love is first and foremost how impersonnal they sound. I'm writing a bit of poetry, just for fun, since high school and I've written my fair share of poems about love, be it about people I got a crush on or people I had a deep connection with, and what I always love about this subject matter is how different the feeling of each poem was depending on the person that inspired it. I'm always picking my imagery with each person in mind: their physical and psychological characteristics, their "vibe", memories I got about them, things I knew they were going through at the time... Maybe it's a personnal process thing but I just feel like it helps the poem feel animated, alive, like it is about a real person because again, it is. And when I read some of my favorite poems I sure feel like I can find some elements of the person who inspired it in it. And it's one of my favorite things: it's like experiencing a glimpse of a relationship you were never a part of. When I read some of atticus's poems I feel like he talks about love like it is some kind of theorical thing and not something he experienced. It ends up making them seem a bit shallow and weirdly cold. Anyways, just wanted to share my opinion on this. Sorry in advance about my grammar, English is not my first langage: I am French. Love your channel and these poetry reviews, it's a really nice way for me to reconnect with something I really like whenever you give us a new video in these series :).
These Instagram "poets" make them short and snappy so they can be printed on their merch. Their talent is as deep as a puddle, and their intent is as concealed as glass.
Rachel, I just wanted to thank you for making poetry so accessible in videos like this. I'm autistic and often have a hard time interpreting metaphor and understanding what makes a metaphor successful or not. Your poetry videos have really helped me to start enjoying poetry more because I can look out for the things you describe. Your explanation of the passage from Romeo and Juliet was so much more enlightening than anything I got in high school English classes. So thank you for that!
"The inevitable fading of all beautiful things" When I read that, I don't even take that as an ode. Lol To me, it sounds like he's calling someone ugly. He definitely missed the mark.
@@conorkelly947 Less fading, implying beauty doesn't last and more, changing. As we get older, we don't get less beautiful, especially not in the eyes of those who love us.
Yahuda amachai has his last name pronounced "am-a-hi" but with a sharp "hu" sound :) any hebrew name with that sound is a "hu" . Great review also, very interesting to listen to!
It feels like Atticus read some good poetry and didn't understand what actually makes them good, so just really poorly mimicked them so it has the approximate feel of those good poems without the good. If it wasn't obvious from my terrible wording, I'd probably do no better. That's why I don't write poetry! There's _so much_ that goes into making good poetry, I understand how people would think you can just scribble some words down and voila, but good poetry is so carefully thought out. Even from this video alone, I learnt so much.
Wait When you were describing how all Atticus does is invoking a particular feeling on your part by making you apply your perspective to his work, I realized… Atticus is exactly the same as those people on UA-cam who make compilations of songs and title them things like “dancing with her in the moonlight” or whatever
18:56 My English Lit GCSE is screaming, crying, throwing up. Reading that monologue in class is a core memory that I banished into the depths of my brain, hoping to never have it resurface. And yet here it is, in a video about Atticus ' Instagram poetry.
“Crutches are never permanent, they are simply there to help until a better solution comes along.” - Me in 6th grade, delirious from lack of sleep The Atticus stuff reminded me of the stuff I wrote in my notes app when I was younger. It’s mostly just simple thoughts said as if they’re incredibly revolutionary.
This reminds me of an amateur poetry forum I used to post on a while back. It was so hard to workshop some poems because they had all the specificity of a greeting card. I always tried to encourage those authors to add more personal details to their work, but most of them would complain that their work wouldn't be "universal" anymore if they did that.
So ironic cause to me, adding all those personal details somehow makes a poem even more universal! Also if they cant take criticism why are they writing!
i went into a bookstore the other day and though "i'm in the mood for poetry" and they had a whole display of atticus so i flipped open to a page and read it and then though "i guess i'm not in the mood for poetry" i was confused, but glad i'm not the only one who doesn't like his stuff.
Atticus doesn't write poetry, he makes textual emojis, generic representations of specific emotions. He writes the bodies of bulk SMS messages, bound and sold to non-readfers.
Fun fact: I think Amichai's line about illustrated flowers in schoolbook is a reference to an Israeli cultural phenomenon that was essentially a campaign that happened in the '60s that was all about protecting the wildflowers and raising awareness that it is illegal to pick them, and it was targeted specifically to kids. so in that sense, the illustration can be seen as a beauty that is in the danger of extinction- but I'm not sure how that fits with the first metaphor of pureness and innocence. Or, maybe it symbolizes an object of desire, which you cannot actually touch or have as your own and maybe never even see in real life.
Anyway, love your take on Atticus! I always love your deep dives into different poetry and how you always give a great and wide range of examples that also doubles up as great recommendation haha
Have you ever read Doki Doki Literature Club poems? It was actually my personal introduction to poetry and I really like them all a lot. All of the characters have different styles of writing and all of them are unique in their own way. Also, the poems are the best way to look at the characters in the game and their traumas, like the poem Things I Like About Dad (I think that's the name, if I'm not wrong). It would be interesting to see a video of you talking about a game and also poetry at the same time.
It's funny, but in the very beginning when you were explaining that there are certain more objective parts of poetry, it reminded me of a Brazilian author I learned about and read stuff from, named Carlos Drummond de Andrade, where he went and did a test for getting a job at the Brazilian National Bank, and one of the questions had his poetry in it, asking what the author meant in the highlighted verse. He answered honestly, and it was wrong. He complained about it and was told that what he meant was not what he wrote down, I'm sure it was incredibly frustrating to him to find that people didn't comprehend what he'd meant.
This video restored my faith in humanity somewhat. As someone who pays a lot of attention to poetic craft, it’s been utterly depressing to witness how poetry has become synonymous with aphorisms that have little regard for euphony, meaningful imagery or themes. That kind of poetry utterly saturates on social media and drowns out anything else. It’s a relief to find out that there are quite a number of people who are not on board with this. If you look at social media & sales metrics you would almost think that poetry that involves craft is no longer a viable form.
God, I thought the first one was bad enough (the “all I can think of when I see a beautiful woman is how she’s going to age and thus not be pretty any more” thing smacks of incel nonsense so hard it gave me the nopes immediately), but that calligraphy of the soul thing is barely more than word salad. I’m not a fan of writing poetry, I’m much more of a prose person, but bloody hell, the shit I churned out for my ill-advised poetry module in university was better than this.
Yeah she's not great, but at least her work is earnest and touches on some good themes, even if she doesn't execute it well. Atticus on the other hand is clearly clout-driven, and his content comes across as highly inauthentic.
lmao when i saw you marking his collections as 1-star on goodreads the other day, i knew he was getting an ass-whooping in the form of a video. EDIT: i haven't read a whole lot of poetry in the past, but watching your videos and seeing how passionate you are about it has gotten me really interested in getting into poetry and seeing what the fuss is about. thanks for that! :)
I would honestly be surprised if Atticus was an AI, I have read poetry by GPT 2 and 3 which was better and more creative. If anything, he is a basic textbot a la early 2000s
I shared my heart and soul via my poetry and...crickets. Meanwhile poetry like this gets thousand of likes/follows etc Instagram and Tumblr etc are so saturated that there's no point now. It discouraged me so much I no longer share my work. Poetry is meant to be shared but if nobody is interested in hearing, what's the point?
I feel the same way. It tends to be, the more specific and personal the poem, the less inclined others are to share it...that's why "successful" social media poets keep their content vague as possible, write about months of the year or heartbreak or self-confidence, because it resonates with the most amount of readers. Even if it's kind of lame.
I'd disagree with the assertion that poetry is meant to be shared. Like any creative process, it can be done for the joy of it. It can be a great method of working out thoughts and feelings, especially if you have no other outlet. Which is not to say that there isn't joy or catharsis in the sharing of poetry, but depending on your aim, it isn't a necessary step either. Plenty of entire books, poetry and prose, are written "for the desk drawer".
Hey. I have never done well as an artist in social media, but I've had a bit of success actually publishing in journals that are looking for real art. Send your stuff to the reputable, committed publishers and fuck all the bs on social media. The more idiotic and meaningless, the better it does regarding literary arts. I think for music and visual arts, theres a great market on social media, but for literature, the reality is that its hell on earth haha
I was so baffled by the third Atticus poem you featured that I felt compelled to try and rewrite it, but there's just nothing to work with. There's no way to "make it better" without turning it into a different poem that uses some of the same imagery.
So I stumbled on the Tyrant's comment Etched into the screen, fading from memory Laying the darkness, I realized in a moment Rhyming "pan" makes more sense than Atticus' poetry
one of my friends reccomended his poetry to me so i bought a few of his books and ended up not liking them but didn't have the heart to tell my friend lol
Y-hoo-DUH Ah-mee-CHAI, like the famous "chai" necklace. The "ch" is somewhat similar to that of the Scottish loch, and it also features in the Hebrew name Rachel. In fact, there was a famous Hebrew poetess named Rachel in the early 20th century.
He gives me similar vibes as r.h. Sin. Why are they both always writing about some nonexistent "She"? Both write those one stanza long "poems" that became popular simply because preteen girls struggling with their sense of self would reblog them all over their tumblrs circa 2017. I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion but I put both of them in the same group as Amanda Lovelace and rupi kaur. It actually bothers me the amount of positive attention these four have been given because I can easily name other, somewhat similar* poets who are actually talented and who deserve the recognition that these four have recieved. *similar as in they would appeal to the same age groups and that they are young writers, and maybe write about kinda similar themes and such.
I like your intro to good/bad poetry and prose. I read a fair bit of romance, not because it's the most fantastic literature from a technical POV, but because it's relaxing. I know I don't have to super focus. I know I don't have to contemplate the motives of the characters. I know similar tropes and character types will show up in the future and it helps me quickly find my place inside the novel. And on top of that, since I read queer romances, I get to actually read characters I can relate to. Unlike most TV shows and movies, which are still *extremely* heteronormative. So is it great literature? Fuck no, but it has a place. ETA: Oh, and I hope you'll read "fascinating womanhood" soon-ish, because I came across her daughter's YT channel and oh boy. That was a trip.
Heyo:) This is a two-part comment, the second part being specifically about the "calligraphy of her soul" line. This is the first video from Rachel I've run into, and I'm loving it! I've always loved how poetry has so many layers and analyzing literature works was one of my favourite things in high school - but in general, I just appreciate the complexity of poems from afar. I wasn't even familiar with Atticus before this video, but i can say i always hated the hype over Rupi Kaur, because I felt like it lessened the meaning of poetry because of getting so popular. I like the perspective that it has the potential to be someone's gateway into poetry though (again I am too lazy to actually *be* into it, but I love all about it when seeing videos like this and I will be checking out more of Rachel's stuff!!) -- and the same goes for Atticus I guess. So yeah thank u Rachel for these comparisons in the video, you've sparked an interest in me! Second part: I agree with the nonsenseness of those lines [moonlight, calligraphy of her soul...] up to a point, I would just like to also share my interpretation, because on the other hand I hate that I do not hate it as much. It's just that I see the connection with the words 'tracing' and 'calligraphy' -- like he (and also do we know Atticus is a "he"? -- probably but I will google it hahah, but it could also just be deducted from the overall writing style ("style") and themes? If that's the case, it's a generalisation but oh well in this case I take it), so like he (oh wait the *he* in this case is the subject(?) not the author, but still we cannot be sure but ok) actually sees the shapes he traced as words in some foreign language, something not to be understood by mind but by soul (oh love), hence calling it calligraphy because it might be too complex to read, but objectively beautiful (like calligraphy sometimes is, it can look stunning but truly not always readable, or is at least really hard to read). So yeah, when I picture this in my head I do think it's beautiful, but it may really be some words bunched together and the authir expects the reader to make sense of it, and if they don't, the author probably doesn't really care (or do they? we will never know) because it's still low effort and profitable. If you read through, thank u
Overall I agree this is not good poetry, love the 'frat boy babbling compliments' with words he barely knows, so yeah the comment above is just specifically about those lines.
For serious poets, poets published in good journals and magazines, you all are the same as Atticus. Just remember that. There is a hierarchy of quality.
I remember hearing once that all good poetry has two meanings: there's the literal, surface level meaning, and then there's the deeper, symbolic meaning. While I couldn't tell you how true this is, it seems like Atticus aims to have only one of these two things be good in his writing, either having a good literal poem that has no depth, or a good symbolic poem that is gibberish on the literal level, with no inbetween.
I actually found your critique of the dusk poem really inspiring and I wrote some ideas for a poem (just ideas but there's a good idea in there I think) She looked at me with dusk in her eyes. The last traces of last light like a low candle against a sun-sapped watercolor painting, its hues and blues blended away and petered out to rust and gray. She looked at me with dusk in her eyes, in which I watched a new moon rise.
Thank you for your videos!! I remember buying Milk and Honey thinking it wasn’t too bad, but you introduced me to good poetry that I can actually get a deeper meaning out of and I’ve even starting writing my own!! Love your reviews, and I can’t wait to see how you review Atticus:)
comparing types of poems that delve into similar ideas is an amazing way to show how techniques can make a poem better, without just saying that X poem is bad. however, I just want to say that in a poem there is no narrator - technically it's not correct to call the voice of a poem a narrator (maybe just in the case of a narrative poem, like the raven). usually it's called the speaker or the persona. my lit teacher used to get very angry when we referred to the "narrator" of a poem lol
I just wanna say that Rachel is a ray of hope for all the poets who put in efforts in writing a good poem but somehow their work gets undermined by more mediocre or instagram poetry getting hype by a major chunk of population nowadays.
So what I'm getting from this is when my class unanimously agreed Romeo and Juliet was about two stupid teenagers falling in 'love' being dramatic and than commiting suicide. And than the teacher came in and tried to correct us saying it was a love story for the ages of two soulmates kept apart by the biases of Thier family and how all consuming love is . . . The kids were right?
It's depressing how mediocrity has invaded all aspects of artistic mediums nowadays. Whether it's music, movies, animation, games, even poetry (though admittedly there are very few poets I have any respect for.)
a comedian once told me that comedy is objective - humor is subjective. comedy is based on certain techniques and as such can be good or bad based on the techniques used but whether it's funny or not is up to the individual
Can you PLEASE PLEASE do a video about Mary Oliver? I feel like she deserves more people talking about her and I would love to hear what you have to say about her work.
This always bothered me because I love writing poetry and spend a lot of times on some of my pieces, but when I try and post things on Instagram they never get the recognition I would like. It can be super frustrating and I figured it's because people can scroll and read a one or two line "poem" but most won't stop to read a rather long Villanelle or Sestina.
One thing I wanted to note when hearing you talk about Romeo and Juliet is that the play isn't really about how messed up their relationship is. I agree with your assessment of Romeo's character, but he's (likely) still a kid too. It's no wonder Juliet falls in insta-love right back; he's at least kinda her age, and she sees him as a way out of forced marriage to an adult man. Romeo is a horny teenage boy who saw a pretty girl once and went gaga, and Juliet is a young teenage girl who feels trapped and desperate for an escape. Just thought the way you repeatedly described the relationship as a teenager and a child was a bit disingenuous. The (presumed) age gap is indeed weird and Romeo is indeed pushy, but the point is that they're BOTH just immature kids that didn't need to die. The tragedy of the play is how the adults in their lives put them (particularly Juliet) in a situation where their stupid teenage antics end in death. That was my takeaway, anyway. It's been a while since I read it.
im lowkey considering making (not writing) a poetry book that is purely rachel-bait make it so bad that its usefull as a bad example but not crap enough to be obvious
okay so, I didn’t actually realize the pictures I would find of Atticus’ work were meant to be poems? Like, to me they were pretty sounding nonsense thoughts or phrases I thought people just quoted from some book I’d never found. They never struck me as poems at all, just pretty nonsense that gave me vague dreamy feelings and like they were meant to be part of a longer thought
His poems sound like that Bo Burnham song where a pop artist sings about the most generic girl ever. He's probably just milking his community as hard as he can.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is probably his most famous poem and for good reason - it’s long-ish but thoroughly excellent and very accessible compared to some of his poetry. His plays are also excellent but a nice starting place are probably his short stories :) I have a video analysing The Nightingale and the Rose on my channel!
You make me want to get into good poetry. The only poetry collection I have is one of these “Instagram poetry” things. I use to think I just didn’t “get” it because I didn’t think it was brilliant like everyone else…now I know it’s probably just bad
Hello! Would you ever consider sharing your thoughts on the works of poet Charles Bukowski? I’d love to hear what you think considering he was a very controversial writer.
So, you're just about to talk about Dunn, have said how he requires more effort and I have had a thought! The difference between a lot of these classic pieces of literature and modern content a la Atticus is the attention span the author assumes the reader/viewer/listener will have. And THIS is my current frustration with Daily Dracula on Tumblr. That all of the takes I'm seeing lack the depth of analysis Stoker assumed his work would be given and so I live in dread of November when it will finally be undeniable that their current Tumblr Sexy Man Poor Little Meow Meow Blorbo *will* be irrefutably someone they would cancel for Anti-Semitism and misogyny. And their hot takes on that are going to be equally insufferable! But, they're having fun. So I'll just keep my mouth shut 75% of the time and bite my knuckle in anticipation of the fall out.
His work is easy to understand and does use very simple language, but I don't think his poetry (or any other that might look like his) should be used as a way to get into better poetry eventually. People who isn't close to the subject and reads Atticus' work might not want to get into better books, because they're used to bad poetry and will probably not want to get into anything new because "it's hard". Easy to read =/ poorly written. There are many good poems that use simple language, that can be understood by most people without sacrificing quality, and I think, they're a better way to start.
Wow ok being unaware of that writer, I was expecting the snark to be a bit unfair, but really all those examples were so bland. Even when you were flipping through the pages, not a single one stuck out. An AI could produce something more vivid. It was like a collection of jokes with no punchlines.
ATTICUS: THE JAKE PAUL OF POETRY
That's painfully accurate...also, incredible outfit!
I had the same problem with Catch 22- but the audiobook is amazing. It's on youtube, and it really brings the book to life in a completely different way to reading it.
😂
Oof the claws are out here!
You know what? You've finally gone and done it. You've finally inspired me to write my own poem. At least I can try to do better than this guy, right?
"You are not the stars in the sky. You are not the sun or the moon.
You are not a spring meadow. You are not a blossoming flower.
You are not a spiritual experience. You are not my world.
You are more.
You are more than the majesty of every nebula and supernova in our galaxy.
You are more than the joy of an endless springtime field of dazzling blue bonnets.
You are more than the indescribable nature of a life-changing epiphany from the Universe.
You are
Everything."
I have a little brother named Atticus who vocally protests his hatred for writing and reading poetry. For a second I genuinely thought my twelve year old brother was secretly writing bad poetry.
he is merely trying to hide his identity
@@sharkfae and clearly it’s working 🤣this person has no idea
Atticus writes poetry that is the epitome of "okay and?" because you want him to elaborate more but he just doesn't
Yes! The dusk poem, while it’s a weak start, would still be so interesting. Like Rachel said, he could have explained what disk meant to him, about the day being over or whatnot, or maybe how it might be cold, or how the water seems calmer at dusk in the beach or just….something additional, you know? In a way, they feel more like prompts to write a poem about versus being actual poems
Right! Like using a forest as a metaphor for love is a really interesting concept; forests are beautiful, but they can also be dark, and you can get lost in them.
And I find it interesting how he writes that she almost forgets that she’s “real”, which sounds almost arrogant coming from someone who likely pictures himself as the “he”, but it could also be a way of describing how you can be so enveloped in your feelings that you get lost in a moment, and forget about anything outside of that.
There’s so many directions he could go with that poem, and a really interesting metaphor to be explored, and then it just *ends,* and it’s like he didn’t even know about any of that.
@The 曇日 Škleboun Literally the embodiment of "less is a bore".
Agreed! When some of my friends tell me they like his poetry I can never understand their reasoning even though I believe art is subjective and anyone can theoretically enjoy anything
And the worst part is that everyone on emo instagram and tumblr EATS it tf up
All of the women in Atticus' poems sound really lonely. There's no interaction between the narrator and Her. She's a queen in a castle. She's standing alone in a forest. She's a lone rose in an empty field. Poor thing doesn't seem like she's having any fun at all.
This is a better poem than the ones in the book
In terms of relationship, each of his poems works as a red flag.
Would you have any fun if this guy kept showering you with such corny 'poetry'?
soooo true
In fairness, you can say the same about poets like Francesco Petrarch. The difference is that most of Petrarchs sonnets are concise ideas well-expressed with expressive language. Atticus is just too shallow and short for the basic language he uses
My theory is that Atticus doesn't exist, those poems were written by an AI that was fed a bunch of Instagram poetry
I really hope that "He" is actually a woman who saw how easily impressed by vacuity so many chicks are, and decided to make bank.
@@bad-girlbex3791 Let's not pretend men are any better. Atticus is the type of shit men who like to feel cool and different, but aren't smart enough to actually understand the actual high-brow shit.
It's poetry for Joe Rogan fans and frat boys.
the only difference between Atticus and Inspirobot is that Inspirobot is funny.
I think that poetry -- both good and bad -- still springs from the mystical wellsprings of the human soul; hence poetry which is heart-stoppingly bad can be assumed to come from a human being.
He just needed to be reminded that he was real
rupi kaur and atticus are the two people my poetry teacher talked about on our "bad poetry" day so this is so fulfilling for me
The fact that I gaslighted myself into thinking I'm like the shittiest poet because these people were famous and my style of poetry is bit old style still amazes me lol
@@ShamaD274 I'm not too keen on modern poetic trends as well, but you keep at it! The world needs more of the older style😄
A girl in my creative writing class told everyone she loved Rupi Kaur's poetry and wanted to write like her. Luckily she couldn't hear my exasperated "Jesus Christ" from where she was sitting.
Is it weird that I didn't see rupi kaur and atticus as poetry? I just treat it as thoughts. Which is the reason why I bought the books
@@ad_kk16 Atticus' stuff tends to read like it came from an incompetent greeting card writer.
Atticus is the frat boy drunkenly babbling at a girl, hoping that enough empty compliments will woo her into sleeping with him, and we are the girl slowly backing away, hoping our awkward no's are just polite enough that he doesn't touch us... or puke on our shoes.
I feel like that was more poetic than anything he's ever said ever.
Holy shit....😅😅😅
But the reality is, crap does get women woozy. (Except for you, and your friends, and the commenters.)
Unfortunately, there will always be at least one girl who goes home with the creep.
@@MrUndersolo No, that "one girl" forms a majority. A woman would rather be with a creep that makes them feel something than a good guy who makes them feel nothing.
...and then the dreaded acoustic guitar appears!
I think we as a society should call nominal poets "Noets". Noet is an anagram of note and is not like an actual poet.✨
I kinda like this idea. :)
Noets actually sounds really cool!
@@nathanflores1974 and gives such an excellent word to something that definitely is a thing. Rupi Kaur comes to mind, work that’s more anecdote than poetry, but not quite either.
This comment deserves more likes.
Yeah we certainly need more gatekeeping in art
Can i just say, i actually love the term "word doodles" - i often write little word doodles that look and sound nice, just for fun. I always save them in case i want to expand them into a poem. But its fun to write out pretty phrases and whatnot, but i pretty much don't ever call it poetry; so i like Word Doodles as a term!
ETA: i remember some years ago, I was following as many poets as i could on tumblr. I think one was atticus (not sure if he had a tumblr or not, but i have seen his name on tumblr), but i cant remember. I ended up unfollowing over half of them because of how vapid their poetry was. There was nothing to distinguish individual style, so they all they ran together and seemed like they were written by a couple of people instead of like 20. I found it very frustrating to wade through all these empty little quatrains, or if they were feeling crazy, 2 stanzas, and try to get something out of it.
Art youtuber Peter Draws sometimes writes what he calls a “wordle” where he basically writes a really long nonsensical sentence - not really paying attention to what the words actually mean, just stringing them together so that they sound good, like drawing a shapeless abstract doodle. I’ve found it to be a great exercise for improving your sense of poetic rhythm, but honestly I would consider Peter’s wordles poetry in their own right. I’ve listened to “loiterous boy” so many times now. (Peter has also written some actual poetry which pops up in his sketchbook tours from time to time)
@@sbad2171 i love him! I totally forgot about wordles. I think he's got such an artistic and poetic view of life.
I agree! Word doodle, or even a word sketch, is a great way to describe some poetic-ish thoughts
burt bacharach's back sack and crack
I remember doing something very similar in junior high, just with stories. It was so much fun to just make up a little fantasy scenarios without having to worry about making it fit into a storyline.
Given how instagram favours pretty things (clothes, meals, cars, landscapes, cities, even people ffs), I don't find it at all surprising that instagram poetry is as successful as it is.
It's just scirbbles of pretty words without any meaning or even effort, which perfectly reflects what instragram is about: looking pretty, no matter what it is. No depth, substance or meaning needed.
Great video as always, Rachel! I really enjoy the more lengthy ones :D
Spot on
Now I at least know where to put all my false starts.
My poetry class this past semester kicked my ass. Writing poetry with meaning and not making it too vague or nonsensical or overly flowery etc is really really hard! I’m not particularly happy with most of my poems throughout that process, but I was still given high marks for my effort. I’m Going to keep trying to write good poetry in the future!
Could you post some of your favorites here? I'd love to read them!
it is so hard! but so satisfying when you finally get the balance
I took a poetry class some 20 years ago in college (Jesus Christ I feel old). That class was enough to me to drop English from a major to a minor, and make very clear I am NOT a poet.
@@TheRonnieaj I still finished with my English major but I’m definitely more of a prose writer lol
@@ystles I’m much too shy but thank you for your interest!
Rachel was determined, a video to make,
She searched and scoured, for poetry's sake,
Through the worst, her emotions she drug,
Perhaps now she needs to give Kyra a hug.
That was great
@The LAST Disciple of Osho And Also The FIRST Have you watched any of Rachel's videos? Making sense is pretty standard on this channel.
@The LAST Disciple of Osho And Also The FIRST Sooo, why did you read this in the first place?
@The LAST Disciple of Osho And Also The FIRST Why do you think I care about your opinion?
@Last First Bro real poetry does make sense
I've been silently hoping for you to discuss Atticus' poetry for months now and I nearly screamed when I saw this in my subscription box! Can't wait to watch the video and hear your thoughts on this topic!
Same except I wasnt waiting silently I was probably visibly shaking sometimes 🤩 /j
It’s so amazing how Atticus really only writes about one subject (women he finds hot) and somehow manages to never improve how he does it
I really like the concept of "word doodles." It undermines a lot of the seriousness surrounding the act of writing, which I find limits my ability to freely work in the medium.
I adored Atticus around the ages of 18-20 (never got around to buying any of his books though, thankfully). Speaking from personal experience, he definitely capitalizes off the fad of shallow instagram poetry and instagram’s biggest audience: teenage/ya girls who want an abstract guy to fantasize about falling in love with them
This video really touched the calligraphy of my soul
It outlined the handwriting of my soul
I feel like I'd be more forgiving of Atticus's poems if he just tweeted them or posted them online. That wouldn't make their quality any better, but they would be something he made casually is his spare time and shared freely to express himself. The fact that he published these poems in a book as a product to make money off of makes me much more frustrated by how lazy they are.
I wanted to get into poetry a year or so ago, so I looked up "modern poetry collections not about romance" (I'm aro ace) I was recommended Atticus and Rupi Kaur from some blog post. Very not what I asked for, very boring, I hated it. It took me several more months for me to recover and pick up Margret Atwood's poetry. That was more my speed.
fellow aroace here!! Mary Oliver’s poetry has been deeply inspiring/healing for me in seeing hope in the world without having romance be the end game, if you’re still looking for recs. I felt this comment on a spiritual level though omg
I'm reading one of Margaret Atwood's collections right now, and goodness, some of those poems are addicting to read.
@@acesquare30 I've got Devotions on my tbr, I'm glad you liked it! I'm really hoping to find more poets to enjoy
Shameless self promote, but I am ace too! And often write about it, plus some other topics. Though I also write break up poems, so not everything might be your cup of tea
mary oliver's poetry collection upstream is about the natural world and finding yourself in it, so maybe u'd want to check it out?
I said this in the live chat, but Atticus is just utterly, utterly insufferable to me and I could spend ages writing about how entitled men discover colorful metaphors about nature and think they’re the modern reincarnation of Robert Frost. I loved the part about how aphorisms were always part of a larger, beautifully written work, because it’s so true; I feel like so many Instagram poets see Oscar Wild aphorisms in Instagram posts and think that’s all poetry is and are like “pfft, I could do that better”…not understanding that poetry is so much deeper than just sprinkling a bunch of female pronouns amidst talking about constellations and forests and calligraphy.
However, there is a poem I do quite like from Atticus, not sure if it’s just because in comparison all his other work that makes me want to tear my hair out it actually rouses something out of me.
“To me, she was,
Those final steps
The turn around the last bend
The house,
With a light on,
And a fire lit,
And a faint laugh in the distance on the warm wind.
That was she. She was my always coming home.”
Obviously there are mistakes galore: the sheer amount of needless commas (“the house, with a light on, and a fire lit” like did no one proofread this?) and the idea of a fire being lit when there’s supposed to be “a warm wind” outside. Plus him spelling everything out at the end as though his readers are too stupid to understand (which. Honestly some of them might be).
However I like this because it creates a sense of walking home, of expectation, of both the comfort and excitement knowing that someone you love is waiting for you. I absolutely love that feeling in romantic love, the quiet joy of knowing you have someone to come back to at the end of the day-even if it’s not in person, maybe it’s being able to call them or text them after a long day and finally wind down-but the comfort and familiarity you have with the person you love being captured in a description of walking home to see them. “Those final steps, the turn around the last bend” builds the feeling of anticipation, of /almost there/. It’s such a lovely idea, and while it’s not perfect I love the scene and feeling it captures.
Too bad the rest of his poems are so utterly dry and lazy in comparison.
I also love the feeling of this poem! Thanks for sharing.
Robert Frost's "Stopping by woods at evening" is really great.
When I read it, I was filled with hope and a sense of adventure.
Then I read the discussion online, and everyone was like "yeah this is about suicide".
Like, wtf?!
That really taught me something about myself, and about art in general. If it's good, it can mean very different things to different people, depending on what kind of person they are.
@@Nerobyrne When I was taking a lit class, we had to read certain poetry and post on a discussion board about it. One of the poems I read came off as clearly about abuse, with the light hearted tone sharply contrasting with dark themes, and so I wrote about that, and when I could see my classmates' responses they had written the exact opposite as me. It was quite shocking.
Entitled men? What's with the chip on your shoulder?
@@mr.horrorchild4094 The chip was probably placed there by entitled men. There's a lot of them about, you know.
The "poem" at 45:25 immediately made me think about John Keats' sentence to Fanny Brawne : “I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” I wonder if Atticus was inspired by it or it's just a coincidence.
When you read the second Atticus poem and got to the "Calligraphy of her soul" bit I let out a big audible "Ew." Atticus is like the worst version of a nerdy teenager in the drama department who thinks his putting women on a pedestal and ignoring everything about them makes him uniquely equipped to speak on the topic of romance.
A friend bought me an Atticus poetry book. I think it was called Love Her Wild or something like that? I laughed while reading cuz those weren’t poems , those were tweets. lol I’m in love w your jacket btw please tell us where u got it 🥺💓
What makes me feel weird about his poems about love is first and foremost how impersonnal they sound. I'm writing a bit of poetry, just for fun, since high school and I've written my fair share of poems about love, be it about people I got a crush on or people I had a deep connection with, and what I always love about this subject matter is how different the feeling of each poem was depending on the person that inspired it. I'm always picking my imagery with each person in mind: their physical and psychological characteristics, their "vibe", memories I got about them, things I knew they were going through at the time... Maybe it's a personnal process thing but I just feel like it helps the poem feel animated, alive, like it is about a real person because again, it is. And when I read some of my favorite poems I sure feel like I can find some elements of the person who inspired it in it. And it's one of my favorite things: it's like experiencing a glimpse of a relationship you were never a part of. When I read some of atticus's poems I feel like he talks about love like it is some kind of theorical thing and not something he experienced. It ends up making them seem a bit shallow and weirdly cold. Anyways, just wanted to share my opinion on this. Sorry in advance about my grammar, English is not my first langage: I am French. Love your channel and these poetry reviews, it's a really nice way for me to reconnect with something I really like whenever you give us a new video in these series :).
These Instagram "poets" make them short and snappy so they can be printed on their merch. Their talent is as deep as a puddle, and their intent is as concealed as glass.
part 288382822 of finding a better comment resembling a poem than published posts of atticus
Rachel, I just wanted to thank you for making poetry so accessible in videos like this. I'm autistic and often have a hard time interpreting metaphor and understanding what makes a metaphor successful or not. Your poetry videos have really helped me to start enjoying poetry more because I can look out for the things you describe. Your explanation of the passage from Romeo and Juliet was so much more enlightening than anything I got in high school English classes. So thank you for that!
"The inevitable fading of all beautiful things" When I read that, I don't even take that as an ode. Lol To me, it sounds like he's calling someone ugly. He definitely missed the mark.
I took it as "You're gorgeous right now but I'm sad you're going to be old and ugly later." Which isn't any better.
'the inevitable evolution of all beautiful things' would have been better. Or something similar.
@@rubydoo3307 why is that better?
@@conorkelly947 Less fading, implying beauty doesn't last and more, changing. As we get older, we don't get less beautiful, especially not in the eyes of those who love us.
@@rubydoo3307 THAT is poetry. Thank you.
Poetry is like an ocean. There are parts that are shallow and parts that are deep. It is the responsibility of the poet to know the difference.
Yahuda amachai has his last name pronounced "am-a-hi" but with a sharp "hu" sound :) any hebrew name with that sound is a "hu" . Great review also, very interesting to listen to!
Thank you!!
Is it a similar sound to "х" ("kh") in Russian?
It feels like Atticus read some good poetry and didn't understand what actually makes them good, so just really poorly mimicked them so it has the approximate feel of those good poems without the good. If it wasn't obvious from my terrible wording, I'd probably do no better. That's why I don't write poetry!
There's _so much_ that goes into making good poetry, I understand how people would think you can just scribble some words down and voila, but good poetry is so carefully thought out. Even from this video alone, I learnt so much.
Wait
When you were describing how all Atticus does is invoking a particular feeling on your part by making you apply your perspective to his work, I realized…
Atticus is exactly the same as those people on UA-cam who make compilations of songs and title them things like “dancing with her in the moonlight” or whatever
18:56 My English Lit GCSE is screaming, crying, throwing up. Reading that monologue in class is a core memory that I banished into the depths of my brain, hoping to never have it resurface. And yet here it is, in a video about Atticus ' Instagram poetry.
“Crutches are never permanent, they are simply there to help until a better solution comes along.”
- Me in 6th grade, delirious from lack of sleep
The Atticus stuff reminded me of the stuff I wrote in my notes app when I was younger. It’s mostly just simple thoughts said as if they’re incredibly revolutionary.
This reminds me of an amateur poetry forum I used to post on a while back. It was so hard to workshop some poems because they had all the specificity of a greeting card. I always tried to encourage those authors to add more personal details to their work, but most of them would complain that their work wouldn't be "universal" anymore if they did that.
So ironic cause to me, adding all those personal details somehow makes a poem even more universal! Also if they cant take criticism why are they writing!
i went into a bookstore the other day and though "i'm in the mood for poetry" and they had a whole display of atticus so i flipped open to a page and read it and then though "i guess i'm not in the mood for poetry" i was confused, but glad i'm not the only one who doesn't like his stuff.
your blazer looks like ron weasleys suit and im here for it
My favourite thing about Donne’s The Flea is that the lady he’s talking to responds to his poetic ramblings by taking the flea and fucking killing it
Atticus doesn't write poetry, he makes textual emojis, generic representations of specific emotions. He writes the bodies of bulk SMS messages, bound and sold to non-readfers.
Now THIS is poetry
"homogeneous blob and a cacophonous mess at the same time just kind of impressive in its own right if you like that which I don't" 🤣
"word... doodles"...
Fun fact: I think Amichai's line about illustrated flowers in schoolbook is a reference to an Israeli cultural phenomenon that was essentially a campaign that happened in the '60s that was all about protecting the wildflowers and raising awareness that it is illegal to pick them, and it was targeted specifically to kids. so in that sense, the illustration can be seen as a beauty that is in the danger of extinction- but I'm not sure how that fits with the first metaphor of pureness and innocence. Or, maybe it symbolizes an object of desire, which you cannot actually touch or have as your own and maybe never even see in real life.
Anyway, love your take on Atticus! I always love your deep dives into different poetry and how you always give a great and wide range of examples that also doubles up as great recommendation haha
Have you ever read Doki Doki Literature Club poems? It was actually my personal introduction to poetry and I really like them all a lot. All of the characters have different styles of writing and all of them are unique in their own way. Also, the poems are the best way to look at the characters in the game and their traumas, like the poem Things I Like About Dad (I think that's the name, if I'm not wrong). It would be interesting to see a video of you talking about a game and also poetry at the same time.
Atticus' writing reminds me of when I was 16 and had just discovered what a visual metaphor is. From there on out, it was Metaphor= Deep, always.
It's funny, but in the very beginning when you were explaining that there are certain more objective parts of poetry, it reminded me of a Brazilian author I learned about and read stuff from, named Carlos Drummond de Andrade, where he went and did a test for getting a job at the Brazilian National Bank, and one of the questions had his poetry in it, asking what the author meant in the highlighted verse. He answered honestly, and it was wrong. He complained about it and was told that what he meant was not what he wrote down, I'm sure it was incredibly frustrating to him to find that people didn't comprehend what he'd meant.
This video restored my faith in humanity somewhat. As someone who pays a lot of attention to poetic craft, it’s been utterly depressing to witness how poetry has become synonymous with aphorisms that have little regard for euphony, meaningful imagery or themes. That kind of poetry utterly saturates on social media and drowns out anything else. It’s a relief to find out that there are quite a number of people who are not on board with this. If you look at social media & sales metrics you would almost think that poetry that involves craft is no longer a viable form.
God, I thought the first one was bad enough (the “all I can think of when I see a beautiful woman is how she’s going to age and thus not be pretty any more” thing smacks of incel nonsense so hard it gave me the nopes immediately), but that calligraphy of the soul thing is barely more than word salad.
I’m not a fan of writing poetry, I’m much more of a prose person, but bloody hell, the shit I churned out for my ill-advised poetry module in university was better than this.
My name is Atticus… the UA-cam is a cruel bastard for recommending this to me
wow 😂 you should blame that Atticus guy also who is using your name as a pseudonym
You should do a: roasting/dissecting my viewer's poetry video!
Yes!!! I’d love to send her my poetry lol
i think she did that a while ago a few times, but idk if it will return
YESSSS FINALLY SOMEONE SAID it- ive been laughing at Atticus' poetry for years now lmao its just so bad ahshsgag
Atticus makes me appreciate Rupi Kaur more. At least some of her stuff has meaning.
Yeah she's not great, but at least her work is earnest and touches on some good themes, even if she doesn't execute it well. Atticus on the other hand is clearly clout-driven, and his content comes across as highly inauthentic.
lmao when i saw you marking his collections as 1-star on goodreads the other day, i knew he was getting an ass-whooping in the form of a video.
EDIT: i haven't read a whole lot of poetry in the past, but watching your videos and seeing how passionate you are about it has gotten me really interested in getting into poetry and seeing what the fuss is about. thanks for that! :)
I would honestly be surprised if Atticus was an AI, I have read poetry by GPT 2 and 3 which was better and more creative. If anything, he is a basic textbot a la early 2000s
I shared my heart and soul via my poetry and...crickets.
Meanwhile poetry like this gets thousand of likes/follows etc
Instagram and Tumblr etc are so saturated that there's no point now. It discouraged me so much I no longer share my work. Poetry is meant to be shared but if nobody is interested in hearing, what's the point?
I'm in the same boat as a poet, but don't stop!!! Keep sharing your poetry. We need a poetry renaissance!
I feel the same way. It tends to be, the more specific and personal the poem, the less inclined others are to share it...that's why "successful" social media poets keep their content vague as possible, write about months of the year or heartbreak or self-confidence, because it resonates with the most amount of readers. Even if it's kind of lame.
I'd disagree with the assertion that poetry is meant to be shared. Like any creative process, it can be done for the joy of it. It can be a great method of working out thoughts and feelings, especially if you have no other outlet. Which is not to say that there isn't joy or catharsis in the sharing of poetry, but depending on your aim, it isn't a necessary step either. Plenty of entire books, poetry and prose, are written "for the desk drawer".
It brings you joy. Who care what other people think.
Hey. I have never done well as an artist in social media, but I've had a bit of success actually publishing in journals that are looking for real art.
Send your stuff to the reputable, committed publishers and fuck all the bs on social media. The more idiotic and meaningless, the better it does regarding literary arts. I think for music and visual arts, theres a great market on social media, but for literature, the reality is that its hell on earth haha
"If your poetry is indistinguishable from court testimony, then it is not poetry." - Michael S. Judge.
I was so baffled by the third Atticus poem you featured that I felt compelled to try and rewrite it, but there's just nothing to work with. There's no way to "make it better" without turning it into a different poem that uses some of the same imagery.
Why are all youtube content creators spending so much time talking about what they're going to talk about lately? Just get to the point
And thus did 0ates savage the man
Shatter'd and scatter'd and styl'd on him
I need a rhyme so I'll use "pan"
Here's to the algorithm
So I stumbled on the Tyrant's comment
Etched into the screen, fading from memory
Laying the darkness, I realized in a moment
Rhyming "pan" makes more sense than Atticus' poetry
I sit here, petrified in surprise
Not eternal - only momentary.
In my mind is the same thought in reprise:
Anything is better than his poetry.
one of my friends reccomended his poetry to me so i bought a few of his books and ended up not liking them but didn't have the heart to tell my friend lol
Y-hoo-DUH Ah-mee-CHAI, like the famous "chai" necklace. The "ch" is somewhat similar to that of the Scottish loch, and it also features in the Hebrew name Rachel. In fact, there was a famous Hebrew poetess named Rachel in the early 20th century.
He gives me similar vibes as r.h. Sin. Why are they both always writing about some nonexistent "She"? Both write those one stanza long "poems" that became popular simply because preteen girls struggling with their sense of self would reblog them all over their tumblrs circa 2017.
I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion but I put both of them in the same group as Amanda Lovelace and rupi kaur. It actually bothers me the amount of positive attention these four have been given because I can easily name other, somewhat similar* poets who are actually talented and who deserve the recognition that these four have recieved.
*similar as in they would appeal to the same age groups and that they are young writers, and maybe write about kinda similar themes and such.
The drunk aunt wibes of this look are immaculate
Are we not sure that Atticus isn’t just an A.I. writing poetry?
I like your intro to good/bad poetry and prose. I read a fair bit of romance, not because it's the most fantastic literature from a technical POV, but because it's relaxing. I know I don't have to super focus. I know I don't have to contemplate the motives of the characters. I know similar tropes and character types will show up in the future and it helps me quickly find my place inside the novel. And on top of that, since I read queer romances, I get to actually read characters I can relate to. Unlike most TV shows and movies, which are still *extremely* heteronormative. So is it great literature? Fuck no, but it has a place.
ETA: Oh, and I hope you'll read "fascinating womanhood" soon-ish, because I came across her daughter's YT channel and oh boy. That was a trip.
That was a 7 minute intro of redundancy.
All the Rupi Kaur/Atticus/Instagram poems are just..... shower thoughts
Heyo:) This is a two-part comment, the second part being specifically about the "calligraphy of her soul" line.
This is the first video from Rachel I've run into, and I'm loving it! I've always loved how poetry has so many layers and analyzing literature works was one of my favourite things in high school - but in general, I just appreciate the complexity of poems from afar. I wasn't even familiar with Atticus before this video, but i can say i always hated the hype over Rupi Kaur, because I felt like it lessened the meaning of poetry because of getting so popular. I like the perspective that it has the potential to be someone's gateway into poetry though (again I am too lazy to actually *be* into it, but I love all about it when seeing videos like this and I will be checking out more of Rachel's stuff!!) -- and the same goes for Atticus I guess. So yeah thank u Rachel for these comparisons in the video, you've sparked an interest in me!
Second part: I agree with the nonsenseness of those lines [moonlight, calligraphy of her soul...] up to a point, I would just like to also share my interpretation, because on the other hand I hate that I do not hate it as much. It's just that I see the connection with the words 'tracing' and 'calligraphy' -- like he (and also do we know Atticus is a "he"? -- probably but I will google it hahah, but it could also just be deducted from the overall writing style ("style") and themes? If that's the case, it's a generalisation but oh well in this case I take it), so like he (oh wait the *he* in this case is the subject(?) not the author, but still we cannot be sure but ok) actually sees the shapes he traced as words in some foreign language, something not to be understood by mind but by soul (oh love), hence calling it calligraphy because it might be too complex to read, but objectively beautiful (like calligraphy sometimes is, it can look stunning but truly not always readable, or is at least really hard to read). So yeah, when I picture this in my head I do think it's beautiful, but it may really be some words bunched together and the authir expects the reader to make sense of it, and if they don't, the author probably doesn't really care (or do they? we will never know) because it's still low effort and profitable.
If you read through, thank u
Overall I agree this is not good poetry, love the 'frat boy babbling compliments' with words he barely knows, so yeah the comment above is just specifically about those lines.
For serious poets, poets published in good journals and magazines, you all are the same as Atticus. Just remember that. There is a hierarchy of quality.
I remember hearing once that all good poetry has two meanings: there's the literal, surface level meaning, and then there's the deeper, symbolic meaning. While I couldn't tell you how true this is, it seems like Atticus aims to have only one of these two things be good in his writing, either having a good literal poem that has no depth, or a good symbolic poem that is gibberish on the literal level, with no inbetween.
I actually found your critique of the dusk poem really inspiring and I wrote some ideas for a poem (just ideas but there's a good idea in there I think)
She looked at me with dusk in her eyes.
The last traces of last light like a low candle against a sun-sapped watercolor painting,
its hues and blues blended away and petered out to rust and gray.
She looked at me with dusk in her eyes,
in which I watched a new moon rise.
Thank you for your videos!! I remember buying Milk and Honey thinking it wasn’t too bad, but you introduced me to good poetry that I can actually get a deeper meaning out of and I’ve even starting writing my own!! Love your reviews, and I can’t wait to see how you review Atticus:)
comparing types of poems that delve into similar ideas is an amazing way to show how techniques can make a poem better, without just saying that X poem is bad. however, I just want to say that in a poem there is no narrator - technically it's not correct to call the voice of a poem a narrator (maybe just in the case of a narrative poem, like the raven). usually it's called the speaker or the persona. my lit teacher used to get very angry when we referred to the "narrator" of a poem lol
This
My biggest fear is finally gaining recognition for something only for a youtuber to make an hour long video about why none of it is deserved.
I love this channel! There's not many channels that talk about John Donne in an engaging way that resonates with modern culture!
I just wanna say that Rachel is a ray of hope for all the poets who put in efforts in writing a good poem but somehow their work gets undermined by more mediocre or instagram poetry getting hype by a major chunk of population nowadays.
His entire repertoire belongs on r/im14andthisisdeep
So what I'm getting from this is when my class unanimously agreed Romeo and Juliet was about two stupid teenagers falling in 'love' being dramatic and than commiting suicide.
And than the teacher came in and tried to correct us saying it was a love story for the ages of two soulmates kept apart by the biases of Thier family and how all consuming love is . . .
The kids were right?
Pretty much, yes
seems like your teacher would enjoy Atticus
It's depressing how mediocrity has invaded all aspects of artistic mediums nowadays. Whether it's music, movies, animation, games, even poetry (though admittedly there are very few poets I have any respect for.)
Atticus' poems are snapshots of dreamy emotion for teenagers :/
a comedian once told me that comedy is objective - humor is subjective.
comedy is based on certain techniques and as such can be good or bad based on the techniques used but whether it's funny or not is up to the individual
Can you PLEASE PLEASE do a video about Mary Oliver? I feel like she deserves more people talking about her and I would love to hear what you have to say about her work.
Yes! I’ve been reading a lot of her stuff for class lately and it’s really cool.
i smile every time i see you’re posting a video :-) can’t wait to watch!
“All bad poetry is sincere”
-Oscar Wilde
This always bothered me because I love writing poetry and spend a lot of times on some of my pieces, but when I try and post things on Instagram they never get the recognition I would like. It can be super frustrating and I figured it's because people can scroll and read a one or two line "poem" but most won't stop to read a rather long Villanelle or Sestina.
That annoys me as well but i suppose not everyone has the time...
same struggles.
One thing I wanted to note when hearing you talk about Romeo and Juliet is that the play isn't really about how messed up their relationship is. I agree with your assessment of Romeo's character, but he's (likely) still a kid too. It's no wonder Juliet falls in insta-love right back; he's at least kinda her age, and she sees him as a way out of forced marriage to an adult man. Romeo is a horny teenage boy who saw a pretty girl once and went gaga, and Juliet is a young teenage girl who feels trapped and desperate for an escape. Just thought the way you repeatedly described the relationship as a teenager and a child was a bit disingenuous. The (presumed) age gap is indeed weird and Romeo is indeed pushy, but the point is that they're BOTH just immature kids that didn't need to die. The tragedy of the play is how the adults in their lives put them (particularly Juliet) in a situation where their stupid teenage antics end in death. That was my takeaway, anyway. It's been a while since I read it.
I thought this was wonderful
The video, not Atticus
im lowkey considering making (not writing) a poetry book that is purely rachel-bait
make it so bad that its usefull as a bad example but not crap enough to be obvious
Do it, thats a fun idea! Then you can release another book a few months later that is way better and shows your evolution as a poet lol
okay so, I didn’t actually realize the pictures I would find of Atticus’ work were meant to be poems? Like, to me they were pretty sounding nonsense thoughts or phrases I thought people just quoted from some book I’d never found. They never struck me as poems at all, just pretty nonsense that gave me vague dreamy feelings and like they were meant to be part of a longer thought
I agree with everything except one thing. In that first poem the grammar was technically not incorrect
I won’t make it live but I’m in as soon as I wake up
His poems sound like that Bo Burnham song where a pop artist sings about the most generic girl ever. He's probably just milking his community as hard as he can.
Where to start on Wilde? (book or poetry or story collection or whatever recommendations?) I know the name, but precious little about his work
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is probably his most famous poem and for good reason - it’s long-ish but thoroughly excellent and very accessible compared to some of his poetry. His plays are also excellent but a nice starting place are probably his short stories :) I have a video analysing The Nightingale and the Rose on my channel!
Rupi Kaur and her fanbase have been a disaster for the poetry world.
You make me want to get into good poetry.
The only poetry collection I have is one of these “Instagram poetry” things. I use to think I just didn’t “get” it because I didn’t think it was brilliant like everyone else…now I know it’s probably just bad
i can’t wait hahah
Hello! Would you ever consider sharing your thoughts on the works of poet Charles Bukowski? I’d love to hear what you think considering he was a very controversial writer.
Oh Bukowski…problematic fave of mine.
Bukowski is simultaneously one of my biggest artistic influences and a guy whose work I would never recommend to anyone lmao
So, you're just about to talk about Dunn, have said how he requires more effort and I have had a thought! The difference between a lot of these classic pieces of literature and modern content a la Atticus is the attention span the author assumes the reader/viewer/listener will have. And THIS is my current frustration with Daily Dracula on Tumblr. That all of the takes I'm seeing lack the depth of analysis Stoker assumed his work would be given and so I live in dread of November when it will finally be undeniable that their current Tumblr Sexy Man Poor Little Meow Meow Blorbo *will* be irrefutably someone they would cancel for Anti-Semitism and misogyny. And their hot takes on that are going to be equally insufferable!
But, they're having fun. So I'll just keep my mouth shut 75% of the time and bite my knuckle in anticipation of the fall out.
'It is a far worse aphorism that I go to write,
than I have ever written.'
Oscar Wilde
His work is easy to understand and does use very simple language, but I don't think his poetry (or any other that might look like his) should be used as a way to get into better poetry eventually. People who isn't close to the subject and reads Atticus' work might not want to get into better books, because they're used to bad poetry and will probably not want to get into anything new because "it's hard".
Easy to read =/ poorly written. There are many good poems that use simple language, that can be understood by most people without sacrificing quality, and I think, they're a better way to start.
Who would not laugh if such a man there be?
Who would not weep if Atticus were he?
Wow ok being unaware of that writer, I was expecting the snark to be a bit unfair, but really all those examples were so bland. Even when you were flipping through the pages, not a single one stuck out. An AI could produce something more vivid. It was like a collection of jokes with no punchlines.
I think that the Wilde quote thing is a British thing. In America, it was Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain.