Gone are the days when society engaged with long-form literature and other mediums of human expression through the monoculture. With practically unlimited access to people all over the world, and with the constant availability of digital content, there are far too many avenues of stimulation from which we derive satisfaction.
We are simultaneously becoming less engaged with each other and ourselves while somehow convincing ourselves we are more connected than ever. Millennials and Gen Z have suffered the brunt of the damage of the digital age, as this has largely been the means of exposure to the larger world for our generations.
Only a few decades ago, prior to widespread access to the internet, nearly 20% of Americans read long-form literature, in particular poetry and prose, as a means of connecting with the world around them. Today, unfortunately, this is no longer the case. A 2025 study conducted by the Walton Family Foundation found that around 43% of Gen Z students say that they “rarely or never read for fun.” This alarming trend has become obvious as our youth have become more and more captivated by connection through 30-second TikTok videos, short and unsubstantive smut novels and “brainrot” in general.
In light of recent events, there is clear evidence that we are becoming more divided and less understanding of each other and ourselves as individuals vs. pawns of political parties, faux-religious organizations and other problematic groups; however, I think we are all due for more self-reflection as a means of maintaining our empathy and our humanity even, and poetry offers an opportunity for this growth.
Most people today would hear the word “poetry” and cringe. For many, poetry was an assignment, a chore, one grade out of a hundred in their high school English classes. Meghan Sullivan, an LSU (introduction to poetry) instructor, however, argues that poetry is actually “an opportunity to learn about others and about the curiosities of life that plagues [us].” I’d be inclined to agree.
You’ve probably heard of those considered history’s greatest poets: William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and more. There’s a decent chance you’ve hated them. There’s an even greater chance you’ve misunderstood them.
The beauty of poetry is how personal it is not only to the individual who writes it but to the individual who reads it. Unfortunately, reading required literature for a class often removes any personal impetus to enjoy it and increases the likelihood that you will be unwilling to understand it. Sullivan believes that this is an unnecessary “chore” of poetry and that we ought to “relieve ourselves [of the] pressure of understanding.” Rather, we ought to entertain poetry and other literature as something to be absorbed and not necessarily immediately understood.
Often, we consume poetic work without even realizing; “lines in TV shows,” lyrics in your favorite song and more are often intentionally written and placed as a means of tugging your subconscious, your heart, your mind, your entire being. People are closer to poetry than they realize.
Take, for example, Taylor Swift’s “Mirrorball”, a song about living performatively for the sake of people-pleasing. How could one more beautifully communicate this idea than by comparing themselves to the likes of a disco ball of all things (“I’ll change everything about me to fit in…as they watch my shattered edges glisten”)?
Or how in Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed”, he sends a loved one on their way with a goodbye compared to “let[ting] go of a prayer.” Poetry is not inaccessible; rather, it is misrepresented and misunderstood as a stringing together of words, too intellectual to be useful and too difficult to understand to be personal.
I encourage you, next time you feel the urge to doomscroll or to lose yourself in endless, meaningless content — look up Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath or even Lana del Rey’s “Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass” (yes, she writes poetry outside of her musical discography). You could even look up southern poet KB Brookins or LSU’s very own Maurice Carlos Ruffin, both highly recommended by Sullivan.
Poetry is all around us, and you will never feel that you need it or that you can understand or enjoy it if you do not dip your feet in the water a few times. The right poem will find you — all you need to do is take the time to read.
Riley Sanders is an 18-year-old biology major from Denham Springs, La.
