The Two Great Spells in Poetry: Flow and Intensity
Psychology and Poetry:
The Two Great Spells in Poetry: Flow and Intensity
Alexis Manzano
Appletree Scholarly
August 30, 2020
“What’s important is to find at least a line, or a verse, that starts to sing. Sometimes even one word is enough to open a window on a new view of the world, to start the mind on an inner journey….”
- Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”
When readers are immersed in poetry, we would describe them as being in a trance, which is similar to being hypnotized, in meditation, or under a spell. However, by psychiatric standards, it is viewed abnormally, as an altered state of consciousness (“trances”, n.d.). So, instead of trance, I argue, that it is better to use the term flow, based on a discrete, highly enjoyable, and probably an “optimal” state of consciousness (Abuhamdeh, 2020).
What is meant by discrete is that, opposite of continuous, where a variable is studied along a spectrum, like gradients between violet and blue, a discrete variable is studied based on polar ends of a spectrum, like either violet or blue. Therefore, the reader is either violet or blue, in flow or not.
In addition, flow is considered enjoyable, due to the intrinsic experience of intense and focused concentration (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2009; Nakamura et al., 2019). This is not to say that all poems are pleasurable, because many can be a challenge (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Nonetheless, the endeavor can be enjoyable, if the reader lets the poem lead the way.
Finally, flow is considered the optimal state of consciousness by positive psycologist, because the reader is completely focused on the poem, with little self-awareness (Montull et al., 2020). The reader is submerged in the moment, and their appraisal of enjoyment, or what is deemed enjoyable, can be done consciously and automatically (Ellsworth and Scherer, 2003; Moors, 2010).
On a brain wave level, when the mind is in flow, your forehead, where the frontal lobe is housed, experiences an increase in theta and alpha wave activity (Katahira et al., 2018). Theta waves denote a state of immersive daydream, while alpha is a state of relaxed awareness without attention (Lim et al., 2019). However, the moment a reader views the poem through a critical lens, theoretically, alpha waves should decrease, while beta waves increase, due to increased concentration required (Lim et al., 2019). Therefore, this contrast highlights the difference between flow and non-flow.
With that in mind, the key question is if the optimal state of consciousness while reading an economical genre like poetry is flow, particularly short to medium length poetry. Perhaps it is subjective. Two of the more common experiences when reading poetry can be flow or that definition of poetry from Dickison, where one feels their body cold, and their head taken off: intensity (Dickinson, 1976). This differs from flow, because the reader is not calm, as they experience a subtle arousal (Jacobs, 2017). In fact, intensity may dispel flow, because of how it spikes arousal (Wassiliwizky et al., 2017).
Consider Crane’s “To Brooklyn Bridge”, where the use of a grand theme creates this atmosphere of intensity:
Again the traffic lights that skim thy swift
Unfractioned idiom, immaculate sigh of stars,
Beading thy path—condense eternity:
And we have seen night lifted in thine arms. (S9L1-4)
The zoom out from the bridge traffic to the city night, speaks to Longinus idea of the sublime expression, which may or may not precede Dickinson’s taste (Longinus, 1889). Essentially, it is this type of stanza that could recline a reader into arousal. This feeling however, is temporary, but it is quite rewarding.
However, it is possible to extend it. Frank O’Hara was fully aware of this tingle sensation, and sought to discover and extend that feeling as long as possible. In his first portion of Blocks, the narrator attempts to sprinkle every ounce of adjectival detail to torque and distort a line of logic:
Yippee! she is shooting in the harbor! he is jumping
up to the maelstrom! she is leaning over the giant’s
cart of tears which like a lava cone let fall to fly
from the cross-eyed tantrum tousled ninth grader’s
splayed fist is freezing on the cement! he is throwing
up his arms in heavenly desperation, spacious Y of his
tumultuous love-nerves flailing like a poinsettia in
its own nailish storm against the glass door of the
cumulus which is withholding her from these divine
pastures she has filled with the flesh of men as stones!
O fatal eagerness! (S1L1-11)
Once the reader gets a hold of the chaining of images, the piece’s use of grand imagery in the “giant’s cart of tears”, a phrase like “heavenly desperation”, and “the glass door of the/ cumulus” seek to exalt the sublime.
One other way a poem can achieve this intense arousal, is through its sonic momemtum. Arguably, Sidney Lainer’s The Marshes of Glynn, with its euphonic rhyme and rthymn can elicit both flow and intensity:
Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven
With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven
Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs,--
Emerald twilights,--
Virginal shy lights,
Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
Of the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
The wide sea-marshes of Glynn;-- (L1-11)
With its alliterative “beautiful-braided”, assonance of “forks of the multiform boughs”, the end rhymes like woven & cloven, and the syncopation of iambs, anapests, and dactyls, the poem orchestrates a symphony the poet-musician wanted. You could be forgiven for not delving into the details, because the sonic journey is enough to find a lush intensity.
This intense feeling one experiences is facilitated by the virtual object as a sensory object, ala an image in your head (Lee, 2004). It is this kind of sublime motion image that behaves as a vivid memory, because of human nature’s ancient connection to raw nature suggested through the poem (Bethelmy & Corrailza, 2019). Granted, the read imagery can also occur during flow, but moments that greatly influence the aymgdala, a major sub-cortical hub for emotions, are intensities such as the sublime (Bonnet et al., 2015). Therefore, both flow and intensity are psychologically distinct.
The question of what is the optimal reading experience depends on your standard of optimum. The adjective “optimal” is defined by Merriam-Webster as the most desirable or satisfactory. Dating from the late 19th century, its Latin term is defined as “best”. With the word “best” in mind, with flow, the reader is experiencing the most efficient state of consciousness because of how immersively steady the act of reading is, which at its best, is always calm. On the other hand, while subjectively, intensity is the most effective state of consciousness, mainly due to the emotional reaction during and after the reading experience (Tik et al., 2018). In the end, the “best” consciousness depends on what the reader desires of that moment, versus an overall desire, which is always good poetry. Does the reader want to activate certain levels of alpha, theta, and beta waves more than others? Is it efficient calm or effective “not calm” the readers seeks?
Although a poem can be efficient and effective, as demonstrated from Lainer’s The Marshes of Glynn, a poem will always be either more calming or more emotive. To illustrate an almost purely calm poem, consider Collins’s “The Dead”:
The dead are always looking down on us, they say.
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass bottom boats of heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.
They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
drugged perhaps by the hum of a long afternoon,
they think we are looking back at them,
which makes them lift their oars and fall silent
and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes.
Although the topic of death prevents this poem from being purely calm, though every deep poem is never purely calm in sound and connotation, the idea is that the reader can read from start to end without looking away to indulge in an emotion, because the efficient poem is linearly smooth. Admittedly, this poem may cause the reader to pause, which can distrup their flow, albeit for good reasons, this does make Collins’s “The Dead” and in general, every kind of poem, felt differently. Therefore, the level of flow and intensity exist upon the reader’s experience.
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