Poetry and the Body

Did you know that Poetry can have a physiological effect on the body?

For me, the best poetry is primarily a somatic experience. Poetry engages the body and brain similarly to music.

While many of us are more familiar with music’s effect—how it can shift and alter our moods and energies almost as soon as that first vibratory note of information quivers through the air and dances down our ear canals, many of us are less familiar with poetry’s bodily effects.

Neuroscientists have conducted research on what poetry does to the body and brain.

After selecting poems from the likes of William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Rilke, Paul Celan, Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Schiller, Theodor Fontane, and Otto Ernst, researchers Wassiliwizky et al. measured the study participant’s physiological reactions when they heard poetry out loud.

Amazingly, 100% of participants in the study claimed to have felt chills at some point while hearing the poetry, with about 40% experiencing measurable goosebumps.

So, let’s do our own poetry experiment.

Click above to watch my video as I take you through some poems, studies, and a breathing exercise that will help you “feel” just how strongly poetry affects your body.

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