Rhyme as resonance in poetry comprehension: An expert–novice study

Reading Russian poetry: An expert–novice study

“…Literary text reading is usually slower than non-literary reading, and it results in improved verbatim memory (Hanauer, 1998) but less accurate memory for situational information (Zwaan, 1994). Prior results further indicate that poetry-appropriate processing strategies modulate readers' attentional state even prior to reading (Blohm et al, 2021), affect readers' processing routines and interpretive operations during reading (Blohm et al, 2022;Fechino et al, 2020, Peskin, 2007, and result in improved verbatim memory after reading (Hanauer, 1998;Lea et al, 2021). Poetry reading appears to be more careful than prose reading, since it is characterized by reduced reading speed, shorter progressive saccades and less frequent word skipping (Blohm et al, 2022), as well as increased total word reading times and a greater tendency to re-read earlier sections of the text (Fechino et al, 2020).…”

“…Experts possess knowledge and skills that allow them to approach works of art in ways that are unavailable to novices. Prior research in the domain of verbal art has confirmed that poetsexperts in the art of poetrypossess superior relevant skills and pursue different strategic approaches to poetry than novices (Lea et al, 2021;Peskin, 1998;Stumberg, reading efficiency in adults (Gordon et al, 2020;Stanovich & West, 1989), affecting not only high-level comprehension processes like inferencing (Long et al, 1997) but also low-level processes like word recognition (Ashby et al, 2005;Chateau & Jared, 2000). For instance, skilled readers with a high degree of prior print exposure have shorter gaze durations, skip words more frequently, and are less susceptible to the influence of low-level word characteristics like word length and -frequency (Chateau & Jared, 2000;Eekhof et al, 2021;Faber et al, 2020;Gordon et al, 2020).…”

“…Early findings revealed poets' special abilities with respect to formal (rhyming), lexical, and semantic (verbal imagery and metaphor) aspects of poetry, as well as good verbatim memory for poetic material (Stumberg, 1928). More recent investigations have refined our knowledge about the psychology of poetic expertise, e.g., poets' implicit knowledge of rhyming (Cross & Fujioka, 2019), or expertise-dependent memory effects (Lea et al, 2021). Corpus-based research has revealed expertise-and skill-dependent differences in the poetic practices of professional vs. amateur poets, e.g., in terms of lexical choice and the treatment of poetic form (Kao & Jurafsky, 2012).…”

A Study of Rhymes in Pope’s Poems: A Historical Perspective

“…Rhyme is a poetic device that mostly appears in poems (Lethbridge & Mildorf, 2003;Lea et al, 2021;Sykäri & Fabb, 2022). Jacobson (as cited in Obermeier et al, 2013) suggests that meter and rhyme are two of the most crucial and defining elements of poetry.…”

“…According to Lethbridge and Mildorf (2003), poetry makes use of aspects like sound patterns, verse and meter, rhetorical devices, style, stanza form, or imagery more often than other genres of literature. Those kinds of poetic devices including rhymes can be used to produce artistic effects and help readers look back to the earlier part of the poem (Lea et al, 2021). Thus, the choice of poetic devices employed by a writer or a poet must never be a coincidence.…”