Milk and Honey Instapoetry, Accessibility, and Industry

Kaur's brand of poetry can best be defined under the umbrella of Instapoetry, a form composed of short and sentimental text often accompanied by an image. Adapted for social media platforms, Instapoetry is a contemporary phenomenon that has made poetry accessible and marketable to a general public who would otherwise ignore this literary genre. In 2016, Kaur's milk and honey outsold Homer's The Odyssey, which is generally considered among the most important poems in the Western canon. This fact demonstrates the popularity that Instapoetry has garnered not only in online spaces, but also in the world of publishing. Some scholars praise Instapoetry's ability to reach the masses, but others criticize its lack of formal poetic qualities. In essence, Instapoetry has prompted a conversation about what constitutes high and low art, and whether these classifications should merit value in the first place. Poetry (always considered a high art) in the Instapoetry format has become available to the masses, easy to comprehend, and marketable as an industry.