Review of Experiencing Poetry: A Guidebook to Psychopoetics

Experiencing Poetry: A Guidebook to Psychopoetics is a remarkable book on several fronts. Ostensibly an introduction to the theory of psychopoetics as defined by the authors, it is ambitious in both scope and depth. On the one hand, its focus is multilanguage, historical, and multicultural. On the other, it adopts both qualitative and quantitative analyses, reaching out directly to readers as well as to researchers in poetic cognition. Its aim is twofold: to establish the field of psychopoetics as an empirical research method at the same time as it opens readers to ways of experiencing poetry in its many forms. Its focus is therefore on "the subjective processes readers go through, as well as examining their effects on the lives of individuals and groups" (viii). The strategy the authors adopt is to lead readers through cognitive discovery in analyses of distinct poetic forms, as well as exposing them to various poetic performances in song, film, and recitation to introduce them to the methodology of validation through empirical evidence.Empirical evidence, as they note, is both qualitative as well as quantitative. That is, those, like me, who take a qualitative approach to the study of poetry by developing a cognitive theory of validation (Freeman 2020, 2023), need to recognize the advantages of a quantitative approach that can provide evidence for the empirical effects, both significant and affective, poetry can have in general. It is, therefore, an additional criterion for why certain poetry lasts across time and cultures. The book, however, does much more. It introduces readers to the principles, methodology, and theoretical applications of statistical survey, providing the most explicit and best way I have ever read of the general principles and functions of empirical methodology and study (chapter 8), as well as providing examples of how students might conduct such surveys by themselves. It does so by showing readers how to construct questionnaires and develop comparative graphs of their findings. And it does so by speaking directly to the reader, guiding them with clear and explicit directions for experiencing and understanding the poems under consideration.So, the first question that arises is: What are the advantages—and possible disadvantages —of using empirical evidence from questionnaires regarding experiencing poetry? A recent study on "Why Do Scientists Disagree?" (Sulik et al. 2023) suggests that researchers' own stances and cognitive traits may determine to a large extent their actual scientific output. For example, Chesnokova's and van Peer's choice of questions depending on such emotive responses as beauty, empathy, and pleasure seem to assume a common definition that the participants of their empirical investigations share. The questions investigators ask invariably direct and tailor given responses. For example, only one (sadness) of the ten emotions they ask their students who watched the Portuguese singer Mariza's Fado performance (chapter 2) to evaluate coincide with Peter Robinson's (2004: 60, 61) response to her Fado em Mim (traditional Portuguese songs): "He didn't understand a word of the songs without the translations . . . but there was no mistaking the sense of loss, sadness, and the cruelty of fate in Mariza's voice"— "Mariza singing against a backdrop of the misty Dales landscape, a song about sorrow, longing, pity, punishment and despair." (That, incidentally, is why I can never answer surveys and, if I have to, I respond randomly so that it is in no way a reflection of my true attitudes and feelings.) I wonder to what extent, if at all, the qualitative analyses of the poetry they discuss effect the way their experimental subjects respond to the questions asked in their surveys (Ancillary Resources: Questionnaire Samples). That said, in chapters 8 and 9, the authors explore in detail the importance of systematic evidence-driven approach to poetic texts that justifies or invalidates more intuitive and qualitative approaches.My second question is: Who is the audience for this book? Whereas most studies of poetry for English speakers deal primarily with the English canon, this book is written by professors whose students, primarily graduate, are nonnative speakers of English and who serve as the subjects for the various empirical studies described. It is, therefore, refreshingly international in scope, not simply in the different languages provided as examples, but in the range of media through which poetry is transmitted. Because it introduces readers to the intricacies of statistical analysis in a straightforward and understandable style, it is also suited for undergraduate and high school students,1 not to mention the general reader who is interested in experiencing how they understand and respond to poetry, rather than simply interpreting its meaning. It also serves as an instruction manual for teachers who are otherwise inexperienced in dealing with poetic forms (which is why poetry by and large may be considered difficult and something to be skimmed over or avoided).An extensive bibliography and a useful glossary of terms and ancillary resources, including sample questionnaires, are provided at the end. Each chapter is structured the same way: a list of keywords that indicates the specific elements covered, explication of approach, and analysis of poetic examples, ending with core issues and suggestions for further reading. And each chapter builds on the previous one in two ways: 1) guiding readers through the steps of statistical analysis, and 2) introducing them to major characteristics of poetry, linking readers to online resources that enable them to experience poetry directly in performance, whether via song, recitation, or film. The first three chapters start with the basics of poetic structure, focus on readers' emotional reactions to aspects of poetic forms, and introduce statistical graphs. These chapters set readers up for the next four chapters that probe into the specific affective aspects of poetry, such as foregrounding, epiphany, significance, universality, and timelessness while developing empirical testing to validate such notions. The final two chapters on methodology and theory conclude by elaborating on psychopoetics as an empirical combination of the study of and guide to psychology and poetry that has been discussed throughout the previous chapters.Just as, or more important for my purposes, is the third question: Why is this book an essential one to read for all scholars and researchers in the arts and humanities? What can a quantitative approach do that a qualitative approach can't? We are all aware of how the arts have been trivialized in our cultures, as something extraneous to the "real" concerns of contemporary living. In introducing the concept of a psychopoetics that adopts the very theories and methodologies of the sciences, the book in its final chapters provides evidence for the importance of reading literature (especially poetry) and the arts in general that no other educational training seems to provide. Reading literature and poetry provide, in short order, increased levels of vocabulary and verbal fluency, more awareness of the world of which we are a part, more social understanding of others with subliminal effects of reduction in human prejudice and conflict, improvement in skills of reasoning and cognitive abilities, such as memory, visuospatial skills, and increased attentiveness. Experiencing Poetry is therefore an indispensable tool for placing poetry and all the arts at the center of human education and knowledge.