The Rhythm and Rhyme of Well-Being

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with anyone I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of light and dark is a miracle.

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swarm—the rocks—the motion of the waves –

the ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?

Miracles by Walt Whitman

References

[1] Glinka, M.I. (2024). Ya pomnyu chudnoe mgnovene (‘I remember a wondrous moment). Available at: Available at: https://oxfordsong.org/song/ya-pomnyu-chudnoe-mgnovene-i-remember-a-wondrous-moment [Accessed 17th September 2024]

[2] Croom, A. M. (2015). The practice of poetry and the psychology of well-being. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 28(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2015.980133

[3] Miller, D. K. (1978). Poetry therapy with psychotic patients. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 9(2),135–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01815982

[4] Chan, Z. C. (2003). Poetry writing: A therapeutic means for a social work doctoral student in the process of study. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 16(1), 5-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/0889367031000147995

[5] Seligman, M. (2018). PERMA and the building blocks of well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 333-335. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466

[6] Brillantes-Evangelista, G. (2013). An evaluation of visual arts and poetry as therapeutic interventions with abused adolescents. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 40(1), 71-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2012.11.005

[7] Obermeier, C., Menninghaus, W., Von Koppenfels, M., Raettig, T., Schmidt-Kassow, M., Otterbein, S., & Kotz, S. A. (2013). Aesthetic and emotional effects of meter and rhyme in poetry. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00010

[8] Menninghaus, W., Wagner, V., Wassiliwizky, E., Schindler, I., Hanich, J., Jacobsen, T., & Koelsch, S. (2019). What are aesthetic emotions? Psychological Review, 126(2), 171-195. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000135

[9] Johnson-Laird, P. N., & Oatley, K. (2022). How poetry evokes emotions. Acta Psychologica, 224, 103506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103506

[10] Stovall, D. (2006). Urban poetics: Poetry, social justice and critical pedagogy in education. The Urban Review, 38(1), 63-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-006-0027-5

[11] Blundell, J., & Poole, S. (2023). Poetry in a pandemic. Digital shared reading for wellbeing. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 36(3), 197-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2022.2148135

[12] Morris, J. A., Urbanski, J., & Fuller, J. (2005). Using poetry and the visual arts to develop emotional intelligence. Journal of Management Education, 29(6), 888-904. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562905277313

[13] Alvarez, N., & Mearns, J. (2014). The benefits of writing and performing in the spoken word poetry community. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 41(3), 263-268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2014.03.004

[14] Caleshu, A., Waterman, R., & Kemp, S. (2023). Poetry and COVID-19: The benefit of poetry and the poetryandcovidarchive.com website to mental health and wellbeing. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2023.2250921

Capturing the Transient and the Intangible

Whitman’s Miracles – one of his many poems from his Leaves of Grass poetry collection, evokes a sense of simplicity, and beauty of impermanence. Natural everyday miracles are beautiful because of their transience. To see nature with fresh eyes – to see the interplay of sunlight, shadow, and all living beings occupying the natural world is, as Whitman describes it, a miracle. The evocative rendering of the natural world is one of the many themes of great poets depicting awe and inspiration from nature, reflected in the works of great poets such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, and David Henry Thoreau. Poetry has also, over the generations, been written to capture, however imperfectly, our experiences with other emotions –love, certainly, but also longing, yearning and desire. Often referred to as one of the greatest love poems, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin’s To*** begins with the lines, “I remember a wondrous moment: you appeared before me, like some fleeing vision, like a genius of pure beauty.” [1] Written for the socialite Anna Petrovna Kern, the opening lines of the poem (Ya pomnyu chudnoe mgnovenie) were regarded by famed Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov as untranslatable, who ridiculed any attempts to translate these lines to English.

Beyond its aesthetic and literary appeal, poetry has also been read, appreciated, and written for well-being benefits. In effect, poetry can be an effective therapeutic tool. Reviews in the psychological literature show that engaging with poetry can contribute to flourishing [2]. Poetry, as another expression of the humanities, offers us pathways to well-being through the creative and imaginative. In previous articles, we showed how art, music, and literary fiction all help elevate our well-being by enhancing our relationship with our emotions, thereby elevating our well-being. Poetry can do the same, offering a safe environment for which to explore and elevate self-awareness of our emotions [3]. Research on poetry writing shows that it can relieve stress, promote self-understanding, and fill feelings of emptiness [4]. What poetry does is give creative, reflective form to our emotions, allowing us to make tangible the experiences oftentimes seen as largely ephemeral.

Stirring Feelings: Poetry and Aesthetic Emotions

An important part of flourishing and well-being is the regular experience of positive emotions [5]. Evidence suggests that practicing poetry, through its engagement or creation, increases the experience of positive emotions and can also alleviate depression. Poetry thus not only increases the likelihood of experiencing positive emotions but also protects against maladaptive, unpleasant emotions. One study, sampling shelter participants from Metro Manila in the Philippines tested a visual arts and poetry intervention’s effectiveness in alleviating post-traumatic disorder. Combining both approaches, the intervention showed that the visual arts intervention was effective in alleviating symptoms of PTSD, while poetry was effective in alleviating symptoms of depression [6].

In an experimental study sampling German participants, researchers found that two key elements of poetry – meter and rhyme, shaped participants’ aesthetic and emotional responses among non-experts. The participants in this study reported greater liking and felt more positive aesthetic and emotional evaluations when listening to poems compared to a comparison condition using ‘pseudo’ made-up words. The researchers conclude that “the aesthetic evaluation of poetry relies mainly on the stylistic features of the respective stanzas independent of semantics [7].” What elicits the emotion from our reading of poetry, then, are not the words themselves, but how the words are structured and styled to evoke the emotions the poet wishes to convey. Researchers refer to these emotions – emotions borne out from an aesthetic evaluation and appreciation of artistic or literary objects as aesthetic emotions [8]; the rhythm, rhyme, and meter of poetry are what elicit these emotions in us [9].

Connecting with Others through Poetry

Poetry has also been shown to contribute to enhanced relationships, connections and solidarity with others. Research showed that poetry slams (competitive, live poetry sharing) contributed to positive relationships by inviting people from different backgrounds to hear and express themselves to one another [10]. The creative expression of emotions and experiences helped enhance empathy, subsequently leading to higher-quality interpersonal connections [11]. Sharing poetry is also linked with greater self-awareness of, and the ability to recognize emotions in others [12]. In one study, when researchers interviewed ten poets on their experiences writing and performing poetry, they found that it was only when they engaged in spoken word poetry – when they wrote and shared their poems with other poets, that they perceived greater social support. This effect was not evident when the poets simply wrote the poems without sharing them with others. As one poet mentions, “You can be appreciated by people for the way you express yourself.” Performance allows poets to overcome fears, share with others, feel listened to, be validated, and have continuous feedback that can be integrated into the growth of their work [13].”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Poetry and Covid project – a project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, invited people from 128 countries to write and submit poetry at https://poetryandcovidarchive.com/. When asked to report and reflect on their experiences of writing and sharing poetry under lockdowns and restrictions, researchers found that 68% of visitors to the site reported feeling closer to other people. A considerable 59% of the site’s visitors also reported feeling less isolated from reading poetry shared with them from people around the world [14]. The therapeutic effects of poetry then, are in part because poems encourage us to openly and freely share our emotions through creative expressions, fostering a sense of solidarity within the community during the health crisis. And, importantly, to be both at once, judged neither for our artistic merit nor deepest feeling states.

Poetry and Flourishing

Poetry offers us opportunities to recognize, express, and share our emotions in a manner that benefits our well-being. The rhythm and rhyme of our words capture our emotions, and, when shared with others, offers us a chance to connect and relate both artistically and emotionally with others. As an expression of positive humanities, poetry then, is not merely therapeutic – it can also offer us routes to a life of rich, full, and memorable experiences.

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