Whether you grew up reading Where the Sidewalk Ends or
you spend your morning commute mulling over Maya Angelou, poetry has
probably played some part in your life outside of high school English.
Poetry can be uplifting, showcasing the beauty of nature. It
can be be dark, painting the corners of the human psyche we all know
but may not discuss. Powerful, light, confusing — emotionally, poetry
can do a lot of things.
Researchers at the University of Exeter have found that there's science behind poetry's effect on the brain. We know about music's effect on the body, but these researchers looked specifically at the different responses the brain has to poetry and prose.
Here were the findings:
1. Poetry and music thrill you in the same way.
The researchers found that reading poetry stimulates the
right hemisphere of the brain, which includes regions that also tend to
respond to music. Incidentally, these regions can cause shivers down the
spine, linking both music and poetry to reward and emotion.
It's not just about feelings, though: Other work has also shown that unfamiliar and complex words in Shakespeare's works help boost the brain.
2. Poetry stimulates areas of the brain linked to memory.
There's a "reading network" of brain areas that lights up
whenever we interact with written material. In the Exeter study, 13
volunteers read
an "extract from a heating installation manual, evocative passages from
novels [and] easy and difficult sonnets, as well as their favorite
poetry." Regions of the brain linked to memory showed more activity than
the general reading network while reading poetry.
Lead researcher Adam Zeman wrote in an email to Mic,
"This was true specifically for 'favorite poems' of which each
participant chose one — so very much a function of deep familiarity (the
participants were all English lecturers or similar, so poems mattered
to them!)."
3. Poetry makes people self-reflect more.
Reading poetry helps us chill out and figure ourselves out.
Researchers found that it stimulates the parts of the brain linked to
our resting states, the posterior cingulate cortex and medial temporal
lobes. Those are part of a network of brain regions that are active when
someone is just sitting and relaxing, and have also been linked to
introspection.
Zeman hopes further research will confirm this finding,
since the participants in this study self-selected as poetry lovers. "I
would regard this as a tentative finding, because, for example, it's
possible that people found reading poetry less effortful, hence more
restful ... so more work is needed to explore this finding," he said.
Poetry MFAs, you're in luck. You can finally put some science behind defending your academic pursuits.
