7 Surprising Benefits of Reading Poetry

You may think of poetry as just pretty words strung together. But it is far more profound than that. A poem has the power to express deep and complex emotions. It is a way of transforming and understanding our world. And engaging with poetry, whether reading, writing, or reciting, has surprising benefits. Find out how you can change your life with poetry and get our recommendations for new poetry collections you can enjoy. 

1. Poetry will surprise and delight you.

I felt my life with both hands
Take hold of a dream. – Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper

Poetry is a form of writing that invites innovation. Poets find new and evocative ways to use language to express feelings and describe the world. Poetry helps us see the world in new ways with unexpected imagery and emotional potency. It is an art that lends itself to humor and whimsy. Poemland by Chelsey Minnis is a fearless and uproarious collection that alternates brilliantly between the deadpan, the spectacular, and the outrageous.

2. Poetry helps us feel less alone.

I took one step and then another
And the world came with me, as though it were a companion.
– W.S. Merwin, The Love of the World

Poetry offers insights into the author's personal experiences and emotions. Reading, writing, and sharing poetry has been shown to improve feelings of empathy. Poets often express deep vulnerabilities in their art. Readers who share these kinds of emotions and experiences will feel seen and understood by these verses. Poetry workshops have been shown to be an effective form of therapy in a variety of settings, including healthcare facilities, prisons, and recovery groups.

A 2023 study conducted by the University of Plymouth and Nottingham Trent University found that writing and sharing poetry helped individuals cope with feelings of loneliness, isolation, and grief during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A Little Daylight Left is a new collection from Sarah Kay that will make you feel more alive and less alone.

3. Poetry expands your mind and improves memory.

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
– Emily Dickinson, I dwell in Possibility

Studies have shown that reading poetry stimulates the areas of the brain associated with memory and that memorizing poetry enhances neural connections. Participants in the Poetry and Memory Project at Cambridge University reported Increased confidence in their memory skills after committing poems to memory. Researchers emphasized the importance of connecting emotionally with a poem to enhance memorability, suggesting that meaningful engagement aids long-term retention.

4. Reading poetry reduces anxiety and stress.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
– Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

There's a reason that so many children's books are written in rhyme. The rhythmic quality of poetry is meditative and calming. A number of studies have confirmed that engaging with poetry—whether reading, writing, or reciting—can improve our mental health, reducing anxiety, depression, and more. Beyond the calming nature of the language, poetry is a way to express and process difficult emotions and experiences. For poetry that will help lift you up, try Helium by Rudy Francisco.

5. Poetry helps us reframe the world.

the world is mud-luscious
and puddle-wonderful.
– E.E. Cummings, in Just–

Sometimes we get so bogged down by the challenges we face that we forget to focus on the beauty all around us. A poem can help us take pleasure in simple things like a rainstorm. The evocative language of a poem encourages us to see things in a new light and appreciate all the little things we may otherwise take for granted.

Mary Oliver is one of our favorite poets for celebrating our natural world and all of its many pleasures. We especially love this collection. And if you're interested in learning how to write your own odes to nature, check out A Poetry Handbook, her guide on writing and understanding poetry!

6. Poetry activates our imagination.

I am the dreamer of dreams
who has wandered in strange ways.
– William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Poetry is an art form that is all about pushing boundaries. Poets are wanderers and adventurers, daring to go where no one has gone before. Poems can reorder our brains and change the way we think, opening up our powers of imagination. By letting go of the rules, we find new pathways and discover fertile new landscapes. Something as simple as a line of poetry can act as an epiphany for us as we find our way in the world.

The dazzling Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection that transcends earthly boundaries and weaves together themes of science, futurism, and popular culture.

7. Poetry promotes mental and physical health.

I believe in kindness. Also in the uncharted beauty of the world.
– Mary Oliver, Upstream

As previously mentioned, poetry can be effective in improving mental health, alleviating feelings of isolation, anxiety, and depression. It has been shown to promote self-discovery, activating the areas of the brain associated with introspection. A 2021 study involving hospitalized children revealed that reading and writing poetry helped reduce fear, sadness, anger, worry, and fatigue.

Studies have also shown that poetry can improve physical health, decreasing the suffering of people who struggle with chronic pain. A 2015 study found that reading poetry improved cognitive function in stroke victims. Poetry has even been associated with enhanced immune function. For a collection of poems offering a celebration of hope and healing, try All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols.

10 more powerful poetry recommendations

These are some more of our favorite collections from exciting, new poets of the moment.

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

This award-winning book draws from disparate traditions to create something entirely new. It's an astonishing, propulsive collection that, at once, confronts, praises, and rebukes America. 

The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón

What does it mean to be the hurting kind? The poet laureate's collection offers startling insight into this question, exploring themes of relationships, between the natural world and the human world, as well as those between us all.

Smoking the Bible by Chris Abani

The author moves between his Igbo ancestry and migration to the United States in poems that evoke the holiness of grief through the startling, central practice of inhaling an immolated Bible in this arresting collection.

When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz

In this debut collection, the author, who is a registered member of the Gila Indian Tribe, reflects with visceral imagery and sensuous language on family, childhood, and her Native American experience.

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

An award-winning collection offers a sustained meditation on that which goes away—loved ones, the seasons, the earth as we know it—that tries to find solace in the processes of the garden and the orchard.

Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo

This collection from an award-winning poet reinvents the epic to explore Muslim girlhood and shame, the dangers of being a woman, and the myriad violences enacted and imagined against women's bodies.

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

In language both beautiful and brutal, the celebrated author explores deeply personal themes such as poverty, depression, sexuality, abuse, and the violence his family experienced during the Vietnam War.

Lighthead by Terrance Hayes

This National Book Award-winning collection investigates how we construct experience. With one foot firmly grounded in the everyday and the other hovering in the air, these poems braid together into something both dark and buoyant.

Refusenik by Lynn Melnick

This award-winning volume interrogates misogyny and anti-Semitism across time and a shifting global landscape—from a football field in Los Angeles to a Russian shtetl to a beloved daughter's Brooklyn bedroom.

Customs by Solmaz Sharif

Another multiple award-winner, this brilliant collection traces a pointed indoctrination to the customs of the nation-state and the English language, and the realities they impose upon the imagination.

Invigorate your life and enliven your mind with poetry this spring. And let us know if you have any favorites to recommend.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon