Young poets use foreign words to break old poetic moulds

English accounts for about 10% of the language in Estonian poetry, a share that has remained stable, while young writers use words from other languages to create poetic effects, ERR reports. The findings challenge fears that English is overwhelming poetry in Estonian.

Rebekka Lotman, an associate professor of world literature at the University of Tartu, said writers use other languages to introduce cultural references and different registers. New forms such as social media poetry and rap are also gaining popularity among young people, though they can face resistance from readers who do not consider them poetry.

The researchers are also studying Russian-speaking authors in Estonia. Mikhail Trunin, a visiting researcher at Tallinn University’s School of Humanities, said the project is systematically examining how writers working in languages other than Estonian participate in the country’s literary field. The team is investigating who translates and promotes their work and who reads it, while analysing the poems’ structure and meaning rather than judging them.

The project also looks at how young poets present themselves. Lotman said their work suggests a more shifting sense of identity than the strong sense of patriotic responsibility associated with the Young Estonia movement a century ago. Young authors may treat youth ironically or as a role whose expectations are unclear.