People have always promoted the importance of reading poetry because of the benefits it brings to the reader. Not for merely practical reasons, but also for artistic and taste-driven reasons.
Perhaps some of you have never experienced the feelings that come with great poetry. There are so many great poems for every emotion and occasion: love poems, short poems, friendship poetry, and even shoe poems.
In this article, we’ll be exploring the world of poetry and its many benefits to readers of all ages and backgrounds. These are just 5 of the many benefits that come with reading poetry.
1. Develop your creativity
Poetry has been scientifically proven to help develop people’s creativity. This is one of the main reasons why it is commonly recommended to read poems to young children. It’s one of the most popular things for parents and teachers to do with young children along with singing songs.
Creativity is fundamental to many aspects of our lives, both personally and professionally. On a personal level, it helps us reflect on our lives, family, and emotions. In many cases, creativity can help give life purpose and meaning. At a work level, great work tends to come from creative thinking. Thinking outside the box can lead to huge boosts in productivity, efficiency, and business outcomes. Extremely creative poems tend to show up on reading apps and writing sites that allow for user generated content. Because anybody can post, people post very creative and unique poems for all to read.
2. Self Expression
Reading poetry regularly can also improve one’s self-expression and communication skills. Especially if you’re reading poetry out loud, the language, flow, and natural gestures that come with poetry can do wonders for one’s communication skills. It’s actually hard to measure the intangible benefits that come from the communication side of things because we communicate so much as humans.
Reading poetry aloud can also increase confidence in public speaking, one of people’s biggest fears. This is because the pronunciation and the fear of not sounding eloquent is a big factor that contributes to the fear of public speaking. Poetry helps solve that.
3. Improve Memory
Memory is one of the great benefits of reading poetry. In these times we make use of the Internet to find any data, any news or any name when we do not remember it. Not bad, but poetry will help you to be a dictionary yourself and will help you to stimulate your own memory beyond that of the browser.
Poetry is built on rhymes, rhythm, and flow. Reading poetry will be useful for you to recognize certain patterns or repetitive social protocols during your daily life. Because of these poetic elements, it is actually quite a bit easier to remember poems than anything else, making it great for memory tricks. The best way to illustrate this is with songs. You probably remember song lyrics better than high school math class. That’s because of the meaning and rhythm that makes memorization easier.
4. Develop your Values
On a site like Commaful’s poetry section, for example, you will see hundreds of examples of poems with a critical view of the world. These poems give you a global perspective on the world that you might not get otherwise. You’ll experience empathy like no other.
It is important to reflect on personal values and principles with which you decide how to approach your life. Learning from the experiences of others is one of the best ways to reflect on your own values and decide what you truly believe.
5. It will help you write
Indeed, poetry will help you write and is a common pastime among many bestselling authors. Many writers looking to self-publish also use writing poetry as training and practice for novel writing. Poetry is incredibly difficult to write. Every word means something and needs to be incredibly precise. Thus, writers can learn a lot by reading the great poets and observing how they craft their art. While novels are often not judged by their language, precision, and diction, some of the best novel writers have a lyrical flow in their words. Any guesses as to how they developed that skill? That’s right! By reading poetry!