When is a poet not a poet? When they’re popular | Rebecca Nicholson

Rebecca Watts has sparked a literary spat we can all enjoy

I may have seen too many films about infirm lady authoresses swooning in their corsets while contemplating God, or pale consumptive vagabonds coughing up couplets about unrequited love, but still, the lively squabbling of the modern poetry world never fails to surprise me.

Rebecca Watts’ essay The Cult of the Noble Amateur, published in PN Review to much scandalised outcry, laments what she calls “the open denigration of intellectual engagement” found in the work of young female poets, such as Rupi Kaur, Hollie McNish and Kate Tempest, all of whom are popular, and popular online.