Poetry often goes to difficult places. Content warnings let poets write about anything while giving readers the chance to choose when they are ready to read it.
What each warning means
A poem can carry one or more of these warnings:
- Grief & Loss: death, loss and mourning.
- Trauma: abuse, self-harm, suicide, or other painful experiences.
- Violence: physical harm, fighting, or weapons, described or implied.
- Strong Language: swearing or slurs.
- Substance Use: drinking, drug use or addiction.
- Sexual Themes: sex or sexual content, described or implied.
A poem can also be marked 18+: written for adult readers. It isn’t shown to readers under 18 or to anyone who isn’t signed in. A poem with Violence or Sexual Themes is always marked 18+.
Who adds them
- The poet. Every composer has a Content warnings section in its settings, where the poet picks the warnings that apply and can mark the poem 18+.
- Stanza, automatically. Our checks can add a warning, for example when the recording of a spoken poem is checked. The poet is told straight away, with a link to the poem’s settings, and can remove a warning that doesn’t fit.
When you open Why? on a covered poem, it says who added each warning. A warning Stanza added is marked “Added by Stanza”.
What you see as a reader
A poem with a warning is blurred where it sits, with a short label: “Content warning”, the warnings, then Show and Why?.
- Show uncovers the poem. It stays uncovered everywhere you meet it for the rest of your visit.
- Why? explains each warning, says who added it, and lets you choose what happens next time.
Your own poems are never blurred for you.
Nothing plays while a piece is covered. A spoken poem’s Play button, an episode’s Play and a live performance’s video or replay stay switched off until you choose Show, and music behind a poem does not start by itself.
Podcast episodes and live performances are covered the same way: the cover, show notes, transcript and video are blurred, with the same Show and Why? choices. Why? names the host or performer, not “the poet”.
Choosing what you see
Open Settings › Stage › Content Preferences, or use the choices in Why?.
- Blur poems with content warnings: on by default. Turn it off and poems with a warning show straight away, with a one-line warning note above them.
- For each warning, choose Ask first (the blur, the default), Always show (no blur for pieces whose warnings you always show) or Hide poems (keep those poems out of your feeds, Discover, lists and search results; a direct link still opens, under the blur).
A warning has one choice at a time: choosing Always show for a warning takes it off your hidden list, and the other way round. While blurring is off, Always show has nothing to do, so it is greyed out; your choices are kept and come back if you turn blurring on again. Hide still works.
Readers who aren’t signed in always see the blur, and Why? shows them the explanation only.
Readers under 18
- Readers under 18 never see poems marked 18+, or poems with Violence or Sexual Themes, in feeds, on poem pages or in search.
- None of the choices above can change that: Violence and Sexual Themes show as not available.
- Accounts under 18 can’t publish work with Violence or Sexual Themes.
For poets: removing a warning Stanza added
If Stanza added a warning that doesn’t fit, open the poem, choose Edit, then Settings, and remove it under Content warnings. The notification Stanza sent you links straight there. Readers under 18 can see the poem again once neither Violence nor Sexual Themes is on it and it isn’t marked 18+.