Why Poetry is Good For You

When was the last time you picked up a poem? For some of us, it can be many years – even as far back as our school days. Yet poetry can offer many benefits, from expanding our vocabulary to reducing stress and anxiety. And as it’s often delivered in bite-sized chunks, it can be the perfect antidote to today’s busy lives.

As anthologist Ana Sampson says: “Poetry has this ability to emotionally ambush us. . . Novels have moved me to huge, ugly, wracking sobs countless times, but there is a long slow process of immersing ourselves into their world first. . . Not so with poetry. Wham! Bang! Poets go straight in without any polite preamble and take your breath away.”

It’s little wonder then, that we turn to poetry at major emotional events, such as weddings or funerals. After all, poems can express things in powerful ways and say the things that we might be struggling to. Indeed, they can soothe - as well as stir - our souls.

And learning a poem by heart has even been shown to be good for our brains. The University of Cambridge’s Poetry and Memory Project, which aimed to uncover the neurological and social benefits of poetry, found that committing a poem to memory has real benefits, including a deeper appreciation of the poem itself, and as an emotional resource.

Another study shows how reading, writing and sharing poetry can actually help people cope with loneliness or isolation and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. The research by the University of Plymouth and Nottingham Trent University, found that many people who took to sharing, discussing and writing poetry as a way of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic experienced a “demonstrable positive impact on their wellbeing”. Based on a survey of 400 people, it also revealed that poetry helped those experiencing common mental health symptoms as well as those suffering from grief.

Reading a poem out loud has been found to have particular benefits. In the BBC Radio 4 series and podcast Just One Thing, Dr Michael Mosley suggested that reading rhythmic poetry out loud can slow your breathing and activate your relaxation response, as well as giving a boost to your mood.

The programme claimed: “Reading poetry can reduce stress and help give you words to express the things you’re feeling. And reading a poem out loud has been shown to be a surprisingly simple way to activate your relaxation response and bring about a sense of calm. It’s all to do with the way it slows and controls your breathing rate, which in turn stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system and can lead to many beneficial effects.”

Time and time again, studies show that poetry - reading, writing and hearing it - can help support our mental health, and be an act of real self-care, especially in times of need.  The simple truth is that poetry really is good for us.