Milk & Honey Is... Not That Great. 

Adultolescence: I’m so sad and wish I was dead, link in bio Milk and honey: men suck at finger banging

the casual pouring of a monster into a wine glass, i’m dead 😂

the book was called "milk and honey" but i was a vegan.

it's just very basic and I'd like a little more y'know? -rachel oates

This is what gabbie hannah tried to copy, because she saw it sold so well

I read Milk and Honey closer to when it came out when it was super popular, during my "I'm 16 years old and everything is poetic and edgy" phase and even then I thought it was poorly written. I had much higher expectations of it because of its popularity.

Rachel pouring Monster into a wine glass while critiquing poetry is a mood

i was looking like a snack but you were on a diet. -rupi kaur

Rachel doing a drunk girl impression is something we never knew we wanted, but always needed

A sentence Broken into Fragments Isn't poetry - a wannabe poem

“And the scorpion was like nah mate.” - Rachel Oates May/2020

A girl I knew a few years ago was obsessed with Rupi Kaur’s poetry. She wore converse to prom. 👞 💐

A lot of them feel like, "I'm 14 and this is deep." I don't want to be so cynical about it and the author, but it feels like a half-assed attempt to appear intellectual that, for whatever reason, really caught on. I'm happy it's affected so many people in a positive way, it just strikes me as very very hollow, like it wants to say something but doesn't have the understanding to make a statement.

I think of Rupi Kaur as a bit of a gateway poet. Yeah, by our standards she's a bit trite, but she's lead so many young readers to explore her medium in the same way that some mediocre YA fiction, over-popular Broadway show, or a well-done mainstream movie can. And for that, I thank her.

The problem with Rupi Kaur is that she made "poetry" accessible but its not poetry. People who don't read truly gorgeous and thoughtful and meaningful poetry think that this book is what poetry is. Like some of these "poems" aren't even sentences??? Its lazy. Like you said, there is some incredible talent out there and its almost not fair that something like Milk & Honey gets so much publicity where the rest of us are trying to get noticed

I love this hot take. A guy I had started dating gave me this book because he thought it was so deep and that it reminded him of me and it basically was a perfect warning flag for how much he actually saw the person I really was.

Kyra taking a nap on the sofa is the wholesome content I need in my life right now

She feels like a poet who get published before she'd really honed her craft. Like there's potential, but she's been too hyped up to want to improve now.

"As vague as possible to appeal to as many people as possible" - like horoscopes.

Although I definitely agree it's not the best quality writing, I actually found a lot of what she writes about really helped me process my own feelings after getting out of an abusive relationship. It inspired me to write some very bad poems of my own and it was extremely cathartic. I think if I hadn't been approaching the book in that state of mind, I wouldn't have got as much out of it.

She was a poem But he couldn't read

I hated Milk and Honey, but her other poetry collection The Sun and Her Flowers was much better. Not the best necessarily, but better than Milk and Honey.

"the poet cared more about making something which looks like poetry on the page" i've been SEARCHING for a way to describe my problem with milk&honey this succinctly thank you

The problem with poetry is that unless it is Instagrammable faux-deep clichéd verse, it won't reach a mainstream audience. There are TONS of hard-working poets out there publishing in journals and writing collections, but you kind of don't know they exist unless it has some viral quality or a celebrity recommends it. Case in point, Jericho Brown just won a Pulitzer, but even most people who read a ton wouldn't be able to tell you anything about him or have read his poetry. I know bad youtuber books and this kind of mainstream poetry gets views, but if you'd like to read better quality stuff (yes... I know this is all subjective), go spend some time on Poetry Foundation or reading poetry journals to see some of the great work people are writing today.

"Mixed opinions" has never once meant mostly positive ones

He read me When I was once a simple poem Now I’m a novel He closed my pages shut And left me on a shelf Dusty

Challenge: Mix up the pages of Milk and Honey with the pages of adultolescence. Try to sort them into the correct books.

I feel like Milk and Honey type poems are what a lot of my poems sound like in their beginning stages... Sometimes before I flesh a poem out it will have that "insta poet" ring, and for the longest time, I would stop there because I thought that these types of poems were the most marketable type of poetry. I'm really glad that I've found my icky grungy graphic voice and didn't get stuck here forever

Finally somebody else who doesn’t think milk and honey are the most groundbreaking, incredible poems ever

I feel like Milk and Honey is the perfect example of a question I've had about poems for years: is it enough to have a powerful message? My answer is no, but each year seems to show me that the majority ruling is and may always be, yes.

There’s just one thing I don’t know if you really got, but Milk & Honey wasn’t really a book made to follow the lazy instagram poetry trend, it’s the book that accidentally created the lazy instagram poetry trend when rupi kaur wanted to write about her sexual trauma. It’s not super important for the analysis, but it does give you a better idea about the intentions behind it.

Damn, most of these poems sound like they were made to be posted on Instagram by an angry girl, pretending it to be general wisdom but obviously hoping her ex sees it.

my frustration with poetry books that include art is it makes me want to scream "don't show me, tell me!". they include images and illustrations that they don't even properly describe in their poem. i don't want the picture to tell me what the poem is describing, i'm not reading it for the pictures, i'm reading it for the poetry. tell me, describe it to me. don't just show me a picture, it feels so cheap.

I lterally have the exact same view on this book. It's like, if she had taken more time to accumulate more actual poems (I'm sorry, call me a snob but those shower thoughts were not poems) and maybe published a Chapbook of the best ones then maybe it would have been a good start to a career as a poet. But to me, this seemed more like an very obvious cash grab on her following based on instagram. The thing is as well, I don't want to shit on "teen girl culture" because it really does get a lot of heat for being cringey, but these instagram poems do work (to an extent) on the platform it was written for. It does not translate well to an actual book. Instagram poetry tends to be short and attention grabby because that's the nature of Instagram, but if you're going to put it in a book, you have the time to actually write (well a poem) but something more than a five line sentence. I also get the feeling maybe she hasn't ever actually sat and read any poetry before. I could be wrong and again, sound like a snob here, but Simon Armitage's first and most important rule for writing poetry (and I think this goes for all literature) is to read, read, read. To me I feel like her main source of inspiration was fake deep quotes and she just liked the idea of being called a poet, because it sounds more aesthetic and artistic. I will say though it has done wonders for the poetry community, bringing poetry back into the mainstream, although, call me a hipster but I do worry about the saturation of the artform, like anything that becomes a fad and popular, which might lead to a decline in the appreciation of quality poems (like you already said). Either way, awesome review as always, your drunk girl impression had me laughing. Peace.

rachel pouring a monster into a wine glass is a whole mood and a half

excellent vid! you've perfectly put into words my frustrations with this book. so many of her poems feel like she wrote down an observation in her notes app or as a twitter draft and then thought "actually, that's a poem, slap a drawing on it" - which sucks even more when she clearly is capable of fleshing out ideas into something genuinely engaging. p.s: just wondering what Fresh Poets Society is?? sounds exciting!

Please do ‘the princess saves herself in this one’!

I'm gonna need more drunk girl impressions. That was great.

One thing to note about Milk and Honey: it is written in the same cadence as Rupi’s mother tongue language, Punjabi

her work is frustrating to me in that a lot of it feels like she's trying too hard to be quotable, if that makes sense. entire poems of hers feel like they should be singular lines within a bigger poem

I tried reading "The Witch Doesn't Burn in this One" because of the hype, that was a mistake. I won't claim that I'm knowledgeable in poetry, but that book isn't really good.

Read it and found it terrible to be honest. The poems are something you'd find on tumblr and i can't believe that they were published. "The sun and her flowers" is equally terrible and I regret buying both poetry collections.

I have come up with the term "popcorn poetry" to describe Rupi Kaur and her ilk. Might taste ok with butter and can be a yummy snack. It's no satisfying meal.

OFF TOPIC BUT LOVING THE HAIR!!

The drunk girl in the club bathroom bit took me out cause that's exactly what it's like

I enjoyed Milk and Honey. Not as a deep, intellectual poetry book. But as an easy to read, relatable and nicely illustrated book

just now I found this beautiful channel just now I watched this informative video I never thought I could write a poem but look I can remove punctuation I can break the lines here and here now and now like a sailboat splitting the waves

my favourite poetry book is “no matter the wreckage” by sarah kay. i absolutely love her writing and her book remains on my bedside table to this day. she has some spoken word videos on youtube if you want to see some examples before buying the book, but i totally recommend it.

Do you have a list with poetry books that you recommend for people to get into poetry? If not, could you please do it! :)

Im so glad you called out this "poetry". Im a member of BetweenTwoBooks, a bookclub with ties to Florence Welch. They are a well read bunch, and I often like their book recommendations. But they rave about this book, and I thought it was just really bad. What is actually poetry is an endless dicussion. but I think this book failed that category.

I really love this video because while the critique is very much valid, you also recognize the importance of the messaging. I think something that people forget is that Rupi comes from a South Asian background and some of these topics are just never talked about. As somebody from a similar cultural background, Rupi's poetry book allowed us to open some of the dialogue that was much needed in our community. In fact many activists in our community still use Rupi's poems as a means to illustrate some of their points. I feel like that's where much of the hype originally came from. I remember seeing almost every other South Asian women/influencer post about this on social media before it went mainstream. In a community where women are taught to obey and stay silent and "just bear with it", a book like this makes us feel that our feelings are valid . So while I understand that this book isn't really great poetry, I'll always appreciate the dialogue it has opened and the impact that dialogue has had.

This video has everything: a general good setup, Rachel trashing something bad, drunk Rachel, Rachel wearing a cute shirt, energy drink from a wineglass and a knockout Kyra in the background.

I always felt like I was in a minority for not falling head over heels for her work. Finally someone is able to articulate what makes it so disappointing!

As someone who loves the work of Ted Hughes, David Harsent, Sorley Maclean, Charles Bukowski, Carol Ann Duffy (and to a slightly lesser extent, Sylvia Plath), I find Milk and Honey’s popularity to be soul crushingly, infuriatingly annoying. I know hundreds of amateur poets far more deserving of Kauer’s platform. She is a product of commercial opportunism, and it saddens me to no end that so many young people think that this is good poetry. It ain’t.

That monologue at 20:45 until 21:52 inspired this, I don't have a name for it yet though. Given that I wrote it just after hearing that, this probably isn't very good. Here it is: We dig out our rut in the land, So small at first, So precious and safe, We started at the top of the world. Every day we slither downwards, Tributaries joining as we go, Gaining speed, Gaining traction as we build up, Digging deeper with every inch we travel. We rush forward, Running white tears rolling Through the waves we make, As the landscape is cut and scarred. We run in one direction, Forward. Always forward, Towards the ocean, Rushing at the top, Leisurely strolling at the bottom. We slow down, We breathe with the rolling stones Bouncing through us like music, Like a dance we're too tired, Too old to join in with. We crawl our way forward, No longer rushing, No longer speeding for the end, The beautiful trap of freedom, The liberty becoming more confining Than the dirt and mud ever was. We stagger forward, Falling one by one into captivity outside, We no longer rush, We no longer speed to the inevitable, Towards the mouth of the delta, Through the teeth that bite, And cause us to split Just before we're free. The tributaries that were, Became the rush of motion, The rush of chasing the very end, Until we were left to crawl. The next stream will follow, Until one day, The banks run empty. This is my explanation of it: It's about youth and growing older. From the beginning people are excited to grow up, we gain friends, experience different feelings and have different experiences, but once we mature we slow down, we don't try to rush to grow up anymore, with life experience behind us and new territory in front of us, we just keep going until we, inevitably, die. As we don't all die at once, friends and families are separated at the end by who dies when. - "Tributaries" are friends/families and these join at the beginning to create the river - The river itself represents generations "the next stream" will be the next generation, maybe they'll follow the old path or they'll change course, similar to meanders and the formation of ox-bow lakes. - "Rolling stones" is part of traction, a process within rivers, whilst also being a reference to the band, to represent being older, while "one direction" represents youth while also showing that rivers only move towards the ocean at all times. - "Bouncing" to do with saltation, one way in which rivers carry sediment. Also represents dancing to music, hence "rolling stones" and, previously, "one direction". - "Mouth" is the mouth of the river and used in the context of an animal's mouth. A delta is at the mouth of a river and is, therefore, the "teeth" in the "mouth". - The ocean represents death. It is inescapable, and the river moves towards it with no choice. The ocean is free and open, as such death can be seen of being free from the clutches of life, once the river escapes the banks. However, the ocean is contained in that gravity holds it down and it's tide is controlled by the moon and sun, like coffins, a widely known symbol of death, that people use to bury the dead or their ashes, controlling their bodies before they decompose or are burnt. - "Next stream" this is the younger generation. - When "the banks run empty" we'll have seen the end of civilisation

I don't care for poetry at all, in fact, I'd even say I actively dislike it, but I really enjoy these poetry review/analysis videos. It's interesting to hear how someone who does like poetry views these things and explain the why's and how's. Despite the casual, sometimes funny (hilarious drunk girl impression!) delivery, you've explained what makes poetry "good" or "bad" better than any English teacher I've had

most of her poetry reminds me of things i write in my notes that i would then further develop into an actual full length poem.

I love all of your videos but I’d have to say the ones about poetry are always my favorites! I love to put them on in the background when I’m working on crafts :) Side note: You should definitely read Please Don’t Go Before I Get Better by Madisen Kuhn, it was the book that really inspired me to try writing poetry again and I love her relatable yet creative perspective!

This is why I don't like the whole "Instapoetry" thing; it's about something that looks like poetry because it's being made for visual outlets like Tumblr or Instagram, so the visual impression is more important than what's actually being said (which probably explains the accompanying illustrations too). I mean, you can do minimalism and be meaningful with it, but there's a fine line between minimal and empty, and this sort of thing seems to cross over into the latter a lot... And there are few things I hate more than "poetry" that is clearly just prose with line breaks. I know, I've done it myself. "Let's do shots. Shots? Shots." really should've been the last line of that particular poem.

I don’t know how to explain this but… I liked her poems, but they weren’t good. They were nice to read and they helped me realize that I wasn’t crazy for feeling certain ways, but they weren’t exactly poetry.

Rachel you're inspiring me to write again! I haven't been able to write anything in the past 2 years because I struggle just feeling emotions. Thank you so much for the poetry content!

rachel, you’re spoiling us.

Sweet As Milk and Honey Gone off With the scent Of the fermented fake deep

I am a symphony And you are Van Gogh, my dear But oh, my dear, you've had a girl too many And cut off both ears Then you painted a nightscape In my image, in my deed But you had your eyes closed My darling, I need-- You've given to much to the others My love, and I fear I don't ask for mutilations But I must ask for your ear

I've not read the book and although i Really Hate instagram poetry, i feel like she gets a couple of points for 'pioneering' the genre. She seems to try and take elements from ee cummings and edna st vincent millay like the lack of capitalism and short, sentence like poetry, but any individualism and innovation this may have had has been ruined by the deluge of copycats that used it as an excuse to be lazy af. She's the only instagram poet i will give any credit to. Whether her poems are actually good and she suceeds in these intentions is another matter entirely hahaha

I really agreed with so many of your points. i found the book REALLY just lazy. That was my main qualm with it. It had ideas that could have been developed too. Such a shame.

24:12 As a 16 year old girl, I can confirm, most of us write like that.

Pouring the Monster into the wine glass is a whole mood and I am here for it.

I remember when I first read Milk and Honey I really enjoyed it, but now thinking back on it, I think I was just excited to both finally read Kaur's poetry and that her poetry was acknowledging things I have felt before. Now that I can look at it outside of that, I still enjoy her work, but as you've said there were poems I wish she would have elaborated more on. But I also think that single sentence poems can be good/have a spot in poetry books if that's not the majority of the content and if the structure of the poem is helping to further the message instead of just making the book look aesthetically pleasing.

While I don't think they're the most magnificent poems EVER, they're good, definitely not as bad as Lele Pons videos 😂

the reason poems like this got so popular is because they’re short and easy to consume. perfect for social media. this got popular because people tweeted the poems out or put them in their instagram captions. without twitter and instagram this would’ve never caught on.

She demonstrates the difference between a poem and an inspirational quote☠️☠️

I do think that Rupi was intending to speak about important and personal things in some instances. In certain poems, I think she may have stopped herself from going very far in a fear of sharing too much. And of course, there is the advantage of an audience being able to connect to the poetry more easily. I know a few were kind of generic, but on the whole, it's a book I really enjoy.

the drunk girl impression was spot on, and now i can't help but realize that's exactly how that poem sounds lol

As a sexual abuse victim from the south Asian community, who was repeatedly raped from the age of 6 by a family member, Milk & Honey helped me tremendously. She collated my feelings and put them into simple words. I’ve never cried so hard reading the book. Milk & Honey is not for everyone.

Rachel: "Look at my little Kyrabell, such an angel." Kyra: flops down like an angel On another note, Kyra is the most adorable pupper.

btw drinking the monster out of a wine glass is such a great representation of your personality

can you do flux by orion carloto? she's an influencer and her fans praise her poetry but im kinda iffy about it. i'd love to hear your opinion

I bought this book and the "sequel" to it a few years ago and at the time really liked them. I was a young teenager and this was the first poetry I read outside of English class. I liked how easy they were to understand and how it talked about important topics. This year (I'm 18 now, so a bit older) when I was going through my bookshelf to get rid of some things, I chose not to keep them because I realized how surface-level many of the "poems" were. I'm still grateful I read them because it's what introduced me to reading poetry for fun and I don't think it's complete trash.

So I'm gunna bite the bullet and leave one of my poems here because I love you and I love that as a poet there are still people out there interested in us. If you hate it, let me know, I can only improve but I'd fangirl to death if you read it! RU-vid obviously doesn't allow format text, so it does take away from my flow, but here goes nothing, oh god: Fearing Water My father has never yelled at me, but he did leave me, once: he followed the sickly-sweet tendrils of some meaty, bloody thing disguising itself as my heart, and told me not to come home again. The problem is that he WAS my home, and so I became one of the many sad faces on the streets- half a person with no one left to perch on their toes while I danced or take me to a movie no one could comprehend caring about but us and so most of the help my body had learned started leaking out of the puncture wounds his absence had freckled all over me. --- It took him a very long time to come back to me but I love him like he’ll never return.

The drunk girl imitation was so good. Never knew I needed it, but god that was great

That's how I feel about poetry like this, I'd call it fast poetry, like fast food: appealing, diggestible (idk if fast food is digestible but i hope you get the point). Rupi's poems hold important messages or are just cool, look nice but i don't think that's enough to put out. I think these are essentially sentences that could be included in a book to make it iteresting. A cohesive collection of those incorporated into a story would be awesome. On their own, they feel to me as if the author thought she was so cool and smart for writing that and readers accept that without looking for more. It's a shame but it's nice that more people who don't read real poetry are drawn to it through such poetry.

this a really well-thought out critique done in good faith, which is something i've come not to expect from "skeptic" channels, so thank you friend

The Sun and Her Flowers is a massive improvement

Your drunk girl impression made me laugh way more than it should have😂 I think the scorpion, the bicycle and the fire vs water metaphors are really interesting ideas... The ears cut off one is smt idk why but i wanna make an artwork on it? It's an interesting concept Also the angsty teen poetry- as a 16 year old myself, i can assure you i have written these kind of "nobody understands and appreciates me, i deserved better anyways" + my ex wrote the exact same poems and send them to me ALSO WE NEED THE VIDEO WITH YOU EXPOSING YOUR POETRY

Her poetry did help open up my mind from the cult like religion I grew up in and did help me move on from a super toxic relationship and made me realize self care was important

I love how your videos are entertaining but also instructive. I feel like I’ve learned so much about poetry and art from you. In the current state of RU-vid criticism, it’s really nice to see someone criticizing bad art because they care about art instead of just cringing at how lame something is. You always keep it constructive and encourage me to make good things!

I miss real poetry--like the ones I read in my literature classes in high school and college. Poetry from Margaret Atwood, Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, etc. Poetry that you can analyze and find new meanings every time you come back to it. I don't like mainstream poetry. I get that they explore important topics like sexuality or mental health, etc, but it's just random words strung together on random lines. There's no intended structure. There's no thought process. It's like they focus so hard on the poem LOOKING nice (instagrammable); they sacrifice quality and depth for looks. And don't get me started on the doodles. Anyway. I want to explore more modern poetry books by young writers (I'm 21), but all the ones I've come across are pseudo-deep, have poor writing, and unoriginal doodles. Does anyone have any suggestions????? Because I'm about to give up. I want poetry, not quotes.

Aww, Kyra snoozing in the background is so cute!

I got a Milk and Honey when I was 14 and I remember loving I’m 20 now and haven’t read it since so I might feel different if I read it again lol.

I loved this video! The trend of "tumblr poetry" is very interesting, I do also think it is very telling of this generation. Young people read these published books and suddenly feel like they are talented poets also, these "poems" they've paid for resembling their latest instagram caption or shower thought (an odd, little ego boost). Ambiguity is also popular amongst young people, as the average generic "deep" poem leaves room for an imaginative and angsty young person to relate it to whatever their current situation may be. Yes, the book has potential and young people taking interest in poetry at all is a great thing; I'm not discrediting that at all. I just find it interesting to recognise and discuss these trends

Rupi Kaur inspires me to write poetry in the same way that Colleen Hoover inspires me to write my novel. Because if their work can be so successful, so can my work. And your work. And every 15 year old girl on wattpad's work.

Rachel: I am giggly when I'm drunk. Also Rachel: *is giggling*

The surname Kaur is pronounced like the word 'core,' but with a bit more breath to it, if that makes sense.

he was a sk8r boy but she said see you l8r boy -rupi kaur

Omg THANK YOU. I needed to hear this. I studied poetry and wrote and submitted poems to literary magazines one by one back in the day. Stuff like this is very lazy yet does so well. Underdeveloped is spot on

Her last name is pronounced almost like "core" in English.

You: *casually fills wine glass with Monster Engery Drink while intelligently speaking about poetry* Me: I love it. *subscribes* 😅

rachel saying “wild, dangerous, but free” , then almost spilling her wine glass full of monster, spoke to me more than most of these poems

Thank you for another amazing poetry analysis video! I wasn’t really that into poetry before, but your videos have really opened my mind up to what a poem can be and even inspired me to try writing my own (though I still need tons of practice haha) I especially liked how you talked about how sometimes a strong message isn’t enough to carry the poem on its own. I found that with a lot of rupi’s poems, I was craving more depth, especially since the themes, as you said, often addressed many important issues that aren’t as commonly talked about in mainstream media. If anyone could recommend me poems with similar themes but stronger structure, I would greatly appreciate it