Experiencing Poetry

Introducing an evidence-based approach to poetics, this book explores the psychological effects of poetic form and content, with an emphasis on how real readers experience poetry. It covers the basics of stylistic theory and outlines the specific methods required to categorize readers' cognitive, emotional and attitudinal reactions. Chapters guide you through simple experiments, covering significance, averages, deviation, outliers and reliability, and bring poetry to life by drawing on YouTube performances. Complete with further readings, a glossary and ancillary resources, this book equips you with all the tools needed to uncover the psychological workings of poetry.