Cancer in Poetry—Poetry in Cancer: A Linguistic Analysis of Poems by Poets on Their Own Cancer and on the Cancer of Their Loved Ones

ABSTRACT Background Poems related to cancer offer a rich perspective on the clinical reality of living with cancer. Therefore, in this paper, poems written by poets about their own cancer and about the cancer of loved ones are examined in the context of communal coping. Methods We analyzed 123 poems by 14 poets writing about their own cancer, and 72 poems by 8 poets writing about the cancer of their loved ones, with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC). Results LIWC‐scores drawn from poems about one's own cancer exhibited a limited use of “third‐person singular”, social words (“family”, “female”, “male”), and time orientation (“focus past”), and an increased focus on the present. Support for this observation comes from significant correlations between words related to the present, body, and health, with strong, negative emotions. Poems about loved ones who suffer cancer tend to focus on grief and mourning, and to exhibit melancholy and represent paternal, maternal, spousal, and filial elegies. Conclusions The linguistic characteristics and content of poems by poets writing about their cancer or about the cancer of their loved ones provides rich insights. This linguistic analysis of poems regarding cancer can be used in the further development of theory and clinical application of self‐management approaches for persons with cancer, in support of expressive writing interventions, bibliotherapy, photovoice, art therapy, and health humanities.