The Benefits Of Reading Poetry
Author: Hannah Hall, Challenge America Program Coordinator
Do you have a song that you listen to for certain occasions?
Maybe a type of music for cleaning?
Or waking up in the morning?
Much like music, poetry can also trigger these emotional responses and be helpful in our everyday lives! There are so many poems in the world, that just like music, it can be important to make sure you pick poems that resonate with you.
Here are some of the benefits of listening to or reading poetry:
Pain Improvement: a 2016 study with Cancer Patients showed that listening to music and poetry had a similar improvement in pain intensity. Although music and poetry both showed improvements in depression scores and poetry specifically showed improvements in the hope scores.
Memory Improvement: A 2015 study with stroke patients showed that reading poetry improved their cognitive function, thus helping them to better cope with stress. Poetry activates a part of our brain that involves our active memory. Do you have any quotes or poems memorized?
Writing poetry can help to cope with stress, improve mood and help to heal: Writing poetry can help become more in tune with yourself, express emotions and feelings, or even tell a story. Writing poetry can also help you with critical and creative thinking. Depending on the structure of your poem, you may need to think about rhyming schemes or rhythm and how phrases flow together.
Here are some playlists found on Spotify that consist of poems:
