The Healing Power of Poetry

THE HEALING POWER OF POETRY : BIBLIOTHERAPY The word poetry derives from the Greek word ‘poesis’, - Which means ‘a making’ of a literary art form , Where language is used for its evocative, aesthetics and emotional response! A poem is an emotional-intellectual-physical construct, - Meant to touch its reader’s heart! Poetry links one individual to another by its distilled experience, - Through its rhythm of words and imagery, - driving away our inner loneliness! The ancient Oracles at Delphi used the healing power of poetry, - Through their various ritualistic chants and incantations, - Had tamed many a savage mind into subjugation! The Roman physician Soranus in the first century AD, Had prescribed poetry and drama for his patients mentally oppressed, - Tragedy for his maniac patients, and Comedy for the depressed! The great psychiatrist Sigmund Freud had clarified, - That it was not he but the Poet, who had discovered the subconscious mind! The word ‘therapy’ comes from the Greek word ‘therapeia’, - Meaning to nurse or cure through dance, song, drama or poetry, - Perhaps the divine way to poetic therapy! The first hospital for the mentally ill in the American Colonies, - Was set up in Pennsylvania in 1751, by Benjamin Franklin! Where a number of ancillary treatments were used, Including the writing of poetry and reading it aloud, - Written by the patients who were mentally ill! @ ‘Bibliotherapy’ was the term used for poetic therapy, Which had become popular during the sixties and the seventies! It was also effectively used in group therapy, - The rhythm and repetition of words often created a hypnotic trance, - Reaching out to those ‘secret places’ and creating a bridge, - To that unconscious mind from which poetry springs! “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep” (Robert Frost) # Foot Notes : - ** Initially poetry was orally recited and also sung to the accompaniment of the lyre! After the invention of writing it started to develop its own form ! @= The writings of some of these patients were also published in a newspaper titled –‘The Illuminator”! # Robert Frost’s famous poem, “Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening”, was extensively used for poetic therapy! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------