New research has shown that reading the works of poets like Shakespeare and Wordsworth give a boost to the brain. Scientists monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read the works of T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth. Then they "translated" the works of these poets into more modern language and again monitored the volunteer's brain activity as they read the words. Turns out that the more challenging poetry showed more electrical activity in the brain than the "dumbed" down versions.
When volunteers encountered unusual words or difficult sentence structures the brain was more "lit up."This caused a shift of the brain into a higher gear. Philip Davis, an English professor who worked on the study with researchers at Liverpool University had this to say about this work on how the brain is affected by what it reads, "Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain."
I'm not going to give up my summer romance novels just yet. But I believe that memorizing poetry will have just as much affect at lighting up the brain as reading the bards of old. Is not the line "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines" a more pleasing way to describe a hot summer day than "man, am I sweating in this heat?" Or how about "And summer's lease hath all too short a date" than "I sure will be sorry to see summer go." Language is a beautiful thing and I am glad the works of our great poets have survived in this day of slang and texting. And as it turns is more beneficial to our brains!
this was a really fun read, educational too!
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