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Overcoming Hard Times Poems

Published: October 2019

Each one of us will face hard times at some point in life. Sometimes the hardships come for a short season, and other times they seem to last longer than anticipated. Even though those moments feel like they are going to break us, we each have incredible strength that can push us forward. Having the determination and mindset to persevere can make all the difference.

Even though the struggles in life are not fun, and we wish we could do without them, they help develop our character. They teach us lessons we would not learn when things are pleasant. Each struggle we overcome is one more that shows us we can make it through anything. We hope these poems inspire you to find the courage to keep fighting whatever you are facing at the moment. Get ready to put the past behind you and embrace the future .

28 Poems About Perseverance And Overcoming Challenges

• By Rudyard Kipling

Famous Poem

Rudyard Kipling was an English poet who lived from 1865-1936. He also wrote many children's stories. The poem's line, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same," is written on the wall of the players' entrance at Wimbledon.

in Famous Inspirational Poems

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too:

Go To Complete Poem

I was never an avid reader nor appreciated poetry most of my life. My dad sent me this poem for my 28th birthday, printed along with a lovely card. Living many miles away from him I often...

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Touched by the poem? Share your story! (32)

• By William Ernest Henley

We are the master of our destiny. We are responsible for our own happiness. This famous inspirational poem charges us to accept responsibility for our lives no matter our circumstances. Invictus in Latin means unconquered. William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), an English Poet, had one of his legs amputated at the age of 17. The poem, which he wrote while healing from the amputation, is a testimony to his refusal to let his handicap disrupt his life. Indeed, he led a meaningful life as a poet and editor until he passed away at age 53.

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

Once I was a good student. I have always been an obedient and gentle person. Then I failed in my life for the first time in the year 2002. Something happened and I fell right from the top and...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (7)

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Good Timber

• By Douglas Malloch

Douglas Malloch (1877-1938), known as the "Lumbermen's Poet," compares good men to good timber in this famous metaphorical poem. The message of this poem is that people, like trees, grow and reach their true potential by overcoming adversity. It is only through struggles, like a tree fighting through forest growth to reach the sun, that we grow and discover our true potential. Malloch lived in Michigan where he grew up amongst logging camps and lumber yards. He wrote his first published poem when he was still a boy; it was published in the Detroit News.

The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain,

Poetry is a passionate way of expressing our innermost thoughts, emotions, spirit, and love, amongst other things. As I read this poem, I thought of a very humble gentleman who lost his...

See It Through

• By Edgar A. Guest

Many of the poems by Edgar Guest (1881-1959) are encouraging and share important life lessons. In this poem, he shares powerful advice about standing strong in the face of trials and dark days. The poetic technique of repetition is used at the end of each stanza with the line, “See it through.” That brings the reader's attention to the themes of courage and perseverance.

When you’re up against a trouble, Meet it squarely, face to face; Lift your chin and set your shoulders, Plant your feet and take a brace.

I was feeling down, discouraged, confused and all sorts of unpleasant ways today. Going through a failed marriage, raising two young boys by myself, but moreover struggling with my own...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (6)

Mother To Son

• By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance. In this poem, a mother uses the metaphor of life being like a staircase to give advice to her son. While there are difficult times, you must keep moving like you would while walking up a staircase.

in Famous Family Poems

Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters,

I was not a very good student when I was in school. I did the minimal amount of work required, retained little and barely paid attention. In 1965, my 8th grade English teacher read MOTHER TO...

The Will To Win

• By Berton Braley

When we want something, we must be willing to fight for it. We must put in the necessary work and make sacrifices to achieve our goals. Berton Braley (1882-1966) was an American poet who completed high school in only two years.

If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and

I like how I became motivated to proceed with caution concerning my worldly desire. I do not want my faith and hope to be misplaced. When my will is invoked by deep feelings of want for...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (1)

You Will Never See Me Fall

• By Joyce Alcantara
• Published by Family Friend Poems April 2008 with permission of the Author.

To my mother, Pauline. She means the world to me. She is my rock that I lean on.

in Inspirational Poems

You may see me struggle, but you won't see me fall. Regardless if I'm weak or not, I'm going to stand tall.

This is the best poem that I have ever read in my entire life. I grew up in a family where I had to see my mother being abused by my dad several times since I was five years old. I am 15...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (31)

• By Sagar Yadav
• Published by Family Friend Poems December 2007 with permission of the Author.

A poem about refusing to be discouraged and refusing to be put down.

in Poems about Life Struggles

I will rise After every fall. I will rise And stand tall.

I'm from a country which is famous for its literature. And it's Iran. So we, Iranians, know what a good poem is. I really like your poem. It teaches us never give up. It teaches us if birds...

Inner Strength

• By John P. Read
• Published by Family Friend Poems September 2019 with permission of the Author.

Like a teacher, I believe God sets us many tests in life to prove how strong we really are. We wonder where he is when times are tough, but as we know, a teacher always stays quiet during a test.

in Courage Poems

It's only through mistakes we make We learn where we went wrong. It's only when we're far from home We realize where we belong.

Hi HOSwrites, I believe each day is a step nearer, on the road to fulfillment, and that each mistake is a lesson. They'll be many obstacles to overcome, and we may often ask where God is,...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (4)

Your Wounds

• By Lauren Jarvis-Gibson
• Published by Family Friend Poems January 2021 with permission of the Author.

in Short Poems

Time doesn’t heal wounds to make you forget. It doesn’t heal wounds to

Very nicely done. I totally agree with you. I've used this same approach in my own life. I think sometime we pay more attention to what we're about to go through instead of how much you've...

I Will Prevail

• By Phil Harris
• Published by Family Friend Poems October 2008 with permission of the Author.

My name is Phil Harris. I am 24 years of age and I reside in Georgia. This poem is one of the best out of a book I am writing called "Inspirations in Life." I have been inspired many ways in life to never allow anyone to cause me to remember that I have a dream that I can achieve. I hope to have the whole book completed within the next month.

I have been told that I will never exceed. I have been told that I am living in a dream. I have been pushed to the side by many of my peers. I have heard of the struggles that were present before me.

This poem hits me right smack in the heart. I feel it in the depts of my soul. You see, I lost my son, my only child coming up on 9 years. He was only 20 years old. And he was such an old...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (3)

Mt. Take Heart

• Published by Family Friend Poems October 2016 with permission of the Author.

We have all been through tough times: break-ups, fights, deaths, etc. It hurts too bad or it envelopes the mind... but take heart and hope for better days. Your mountain of inflictions will soon pass.

in Hope Poems

Often we can't see The beauty in the pain. Often we can't see The treasure we gain.

This poem has really taught me how to value the thing we have and the people around us. We never know what we have got until it's all gone, so be wary that you don't lose the moon while...

My Water My Blood

• By Mandy V. Villareal
• Published by Family Friend Poems November 2006 with permission of the Author.

Regardless of the hardships that live in your past, you stand alone. You can depend on yourself and your friends to pull your life together.

in Anger Poems

Is your family still together, just like way back when? Do you stick by each other through thick and thin? Or do you hardly know the one that you call brother?

Such a beautiful poem. I know that I have parents that argue and fight all the time, but they are still together. I understand that it must be very hard for you to live with your parents like...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (5)

• By Meaghan F Sullivan
• Published by Family Friend Poems March 2021 with permission of the Author.

Even when you go through so much, you can always pick yourself up. This is my story in the form of poetry, a way for me to let go. With this poem, my hope is that others can relate to it and find a place of peace to forgive your past but not forget since it is what makes you stronger.

in Bullying Poems

A letter to that girl That girl who sat by herself That girl who doubted herself That girl who was bullied

This hit home to the T. I couldn't have said it better if I wrote it myself. To whoever wrote this, I feel for what you feel, and it gives me courage to go on. Thank you for sharing it to us...

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (2)

You Could Have Given Up

• By S.C. Lourie
• Published by Family Friend Poems June 2021 with permission of the Author.

You could have given up, but you kept on going. You could have seen obstacles, but you called them adventures.

Another good one! I enjoyed it very much. And I think most of us can relate; I know I can. Thanks for sharing.

Climb Every Mountain

• By Eric R. Harvey
• Published by Family Friend Poems February 2019 with permission of the Author.

This poem is about the obstacles we have to overcome following the passing of a loved one or someone who is seriously ill. It is about getting through those terrible times, learning to stand and cope.

We all have a massive mountain to climb, Especially those who've lost someone dear. But climb that big mountain, we surely must, If we are going to overcome fear.

No Stories yet, You can be the first!

Touched by the poem? Share your story! (0)

• By Abimbola T. Alabi
• Published by Family Friend Poems April 2018 with permission of the Author.

We all have our share of struggles in life. I have mine and penned this, thinking over them.

Vagaries of this life can be Tough and hard to fathom, And yet have they conquered me? Look how far I've come.

This is definitely an inspirational poem. Everyone has challenges in life, but how we deal with them is crucial to our own well-being. My favorite stanza was the second!

Wake Up, Beautiful

• By Danielle L. Stewart
• Published by Family Friend Poems September 2016 with permission of the Author.

My name is Danielle, and I wrote this after losing my 6th child. Writing helps me cope.

Wake up, beautiful. Wake up from this tragedy. Breathe, Return to reality.

Time To Stop Struggling

• Published by Family Friend Poems July 2008 with permission of the Author.

A poem about continuing to struggle through the most difficult of times. A poem about letting go and letting God.

Life is unfair; sometimes the misery we can't bear. This was a feeling I could never share. I am strong, strong enough to move on from this pain. I won't feel the shame; my life is not a game.

I can also relate to your story when I was 28 years old I suffered from 2 ruptured brain aneurysms. I learned later than it was a miracle of God that I had survived because 99 percent of...

Finding A Will When Wanting To Quit

• By Tyquan L. Norwood
• Published by Family Friend Poems February 2020 with permission of the Author.

Life is so hard, and living it is too. I have been through a lot in my young lifetime. I just want a change for people and the world. We all need to make the world a better place.

Times will get rough and sometimes tough, Where you may say that you have had enough, Where you may fall and need a lift, Where the hurt of your pains may leave you stiff.

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5 Poems About Social Issues That Will Inspire and Challenge You

Social issues affect us all, and poetry has long been a powerful tool for shining a light on the injustices and inequalities that exist in our world. In this blog post, we’ve curated five original and unique poems about social issues that explore topics ranging from racial injustice and gender inequality to poverty and environmental degradation.

These poems offer a deeply personal and emotional perspective on the societal challenges that we face, inviting us to reflect on our own role in creating a more just and equitable world. Each poem is a testament to the power of poetry to inspire empathy, challenge our assumptions, and motivate us to take action.

So if you’re looking for poetry that speaks to the heart of social issues, read on for 5 poems about social issues that offer insight, inspiration, and a call to action.

Unraveling the Complexity

Social issues, they abound, Their complexity is all around. No single cause, no simple cure, We must dig deep to find the pure.

Injustice, inequality, and strife, These are the challenges of life. Discrimination, poverty, and hate, The list goes on, it’s hard to state.

Each issue has its roots, A tangle of factors and pursuits. Economics, politics, and culture too, All have a role in what we do.

The causes are not always clear, It takes time and effort to hear. The voices of those who suffer most, To understand their plight, and why they boast.

But unraveling the complexity, Can lead to profound connectivity. Between people, communities, and nations, A chance for growth, and new foundations.

The first step is to listen, To hear the stories of those who’ve been missing. Their struggles, their pain, their dreams, Their lives, their hopes, their seams.

Then we must work together, To tackle the issues, whatever the weather. To find solutions, that are just and fair, And to show the world that we truly care.

For social issues are not just problems to solve, But also opportunities to evolve. To learn, to grow, to connect, To build a world, that we can respect.

So let us embrace the complexity, And face the challenges with tenacity. For in doing so, we can create, A world that is just, and full of fate.

The Controversy of Social Issues

In this world, there’s much to see, From poverty to inequality, And every problem we face, Brings its own set of debates.

Controversy, it does surround, Every social issue that can be found, From politics to human rights, It’s a battle to make things right.

Some say one thing, others another, A clash of opinions like no other, On the streets and in the halls of power, Debates rage on by the hour.

Each side trying to make a case, To convince others of their own ways, But the controversy it does remain, As each side holds to its own domain.

Inequality, it’s a hot topic, From gender to race and economic, People stand up for what they believe, As the controversy does not leave.

There’s healthcare, education, and more, That have people arguing as they explore, Different solutions to the same problem, But the controversy it does not end.

Even in the smallest of issues, Controversy can lead to new views, To open up our eyes and see, The different sides that can be.

We must listen to each other’s thoughts, Even if they are not what we thought, For the controversy we face, Can lead to a better human race.

We must embrace the different views, To find common ground and pursue, The solutions that can bring change, And move us towards a better age.

So let the controversy rage on, For in it we can find a new dawn, Where social issues are resolved, And harmony is our ultimate goal.

Ripple Effect

Social issues ripple through society Touching lives in profound ways From the individual to the community Their impact is felt every day

Inequality and injustice Leave scars that never heal Marginalized communities Struggling to make ends meet, for real

Discrimination and prejudice Foster hatred and division Barriers to education and employment Limit opportunities and ambition

The environment bears the burden Of our reckless consumption and waste Global warming and pollution Affecting our health and our landscape

Mental health and addiction Plague our society with despair Stigma and lack of support Prevent healing and care

Social issues have a ripple effect They touch everyone, near and far They demand our attention and action To create a world that is just and fair

We must look beyond our own lives And see the impact we can make Through compassion, empathy, and action We can create a better world, for our own sake

Let us work towards equality and justice To lift up the marginalized and oppressed Let us protect our environment and resources To ensure that future generations are blessed

Let us support mental health and healing To uplift those in need of care Let us create a society that is just and fair Where all can thrive, and none need despair

For social issues ripple through society Touching lives in profound ways May our impact be one of compassion and care As we navigate this world, day by day.

Social issues, like tangled webs, Are woven tight, without a thread Of separation or divide, A knot of problems to untie.

Injustice, poverty, and hate Are intertwined, inextricably, fate Bound up in one another’s plight, A fight for freedom, day and night.

The threads of life are intertwined, From race to class to gender’s bind, A tapestry of pain and need, A call for justice, to be freed.

The poverty of one begets The hunger of another set, And violence, it takes its toll On every soul, we are one whole.

Environmental crisis, too, Is connected, seen through The lens of justice, for we know That all are impacted, high and low.

We cannot solve just one, it’s true, Without addressing the other few, Intersectionality, it’s clear, A call for change, we need to hear.

For each thread woven through the veil, Of social problems, we must not fail To recognize the ties that bind, The need for love, a common mind.

So let us weave a brighter day, Together, let us pave the way, For equity, and justice too, For we are one, and so are you.

The Persistence of Social Issues

Injustice and inequality, poverty and strife These social issues have plagued us for life Despite our efforts to bring about change Their persistence remains, unrelenting and strange

The struggle for justice, the fight for what’s right Against forces of oppression, we strive to ignite A movement for change, a spark in the night To challenge the status quo, and end this fight

The battles we’ve fought, the victories we’ve won But the persistence of these issues, cannot be undone For they are deeply rooted, in systems and structures That favor the powerful, and silence the voices of the ruptures

Injustice against marginalized communities Equality and rights denied to minorities Oppression, exploitation, and violence Societal norms that silence and silence

Generations have passed, yet the issues remain Perpetuating harm, causing much pain We strive to create a better world But progress is slow, and the issues are still unfurled

The persistence of social issues can be overwhelming But we must not falter, we must keep on striving To raise awareness, to fight for change To challenge the systems that keep us in chains

We must unite in solidarity and support To fight against injustice and inequality, and not be caught By the forces that seek to divide us apart For together, we can create a better start

The persistence of social issues may never cease But we must persist, and not lose our peace For it is only by working together that we can defeat These issues that persist, and create a world that is complete

So let us not give up, and let us not rest For the persistence of social issues, is a test Of our strength, our courage, and our will To create a better world, that is just and fulfilled.

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Using poetry to solve problems

Grappling with a problem? Try writing a poem about it to aid your subconscious in finding a solution. Sam Illingworth explains how

Sam Illingworth

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Poetry has many benefits. From developing empathy and providing support for mental health needs , to reconsidering our relationship with nature and even potentially improving immune system and lung function . Poetry has also been shown to help give voice to marginalised communities and to provide an effective conduit for communicating research to diverse audiences.

It can also be used to solve problems. This is a tool that can be used by academics and students alike.

Poetry? Solve problems? How?

By actively targeting the creative incubation period.

Imagine that you are working on a specific task or problem and you reach a point where you become completely stuck. One of the ways you might overcome this is to step away from the problem, allowing your subconscious to process the issue and potentially come up with a solution. This is what is known as the incubation period. This period of incubation has been shown to help facilitate creativity , which in turn can lead to unique solutions for tasks that need completing or problems that need solving.

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However, this is a very passive approach to targeting the incubation period, as by acting in this way you are hoping that your brain will eventually come up with a solution and then tell you about it when you are cooking dinner, watching Netflix or waiting for a train.

An alternative approach is to actively target this incubation period, by thinking about the problem in a completely different way; for example, by writing a poem.

Write a poem? Me? How?

By using basic poetic forms to help provide a structure to your creativity.

Asking people to “write a poem” is quite a daunting task, perhaps akin to “make an invention” or “do some science”. However, we can break down this process into more manageable steps to help us actively target the creative incubation period.

Step 1: List

Begin by writing a list poem. List poems are poems in which you list everything that you associate with a particular topic. They can be physical objects, but also sounds, smells, emotions or anything else you can think of. Set yourself a time limit of 60 seconds, and list all the things that come to mind when you think about your problem.

As an example, here is a list poem that I wrote about the albedo feedback effect  – a process where changes in the amount of ice and water alter the reflectivity of a surface and thus the extent to which it heats up – in the Arctic:

White, climate change, snow, ice, progression, breaking, waves, runaway steam trains, distance, edges, reflection, relentless, process.

Step 2: Write

Poetry does not have stick to any specific form. However, these forms can really aid the writing process, providing the scaffolding on which to develop your confidence and skillset. There are many different forms of poetry that you can use to help structure your creativity, and the website Shadow Poetry provides an excellent resource for many of these, including worked examples. Having picked a form, you can then use the list poem that you have just created to help you in your writing.

To give an example of what this might look like in practice, let me to introduce you to one of my favourite poetic forms: the nonet.

The nonet is a nine-line poem, where each line contains a specific, descending number of syllables. The first line contains nine syllables, the second line contains eight, the third line contains seven, and so on, until the last line of the poem, which contains a single syllable. As an example, here is a nonet that I wrote following the list poem in Step 1:

Sunbeams two-step over white blankets gliding painlessly between worlds, then stray too close to the edge where looming Arctic waves trap their latent heat. Ending the dance, and leaving only sea.

Step 3: Reflect

Having written your poem, it is now time to return to your problem. Has writing this poem revealed any new potential solutions or potentially exposed a mistake in your previous thinking?

Even if your poem did not lead to a direct solution to your initial problem, by actively targeting the creative incubation period you have probably opened up several additional learning opportunities to reflect on. For example, you might have discovered a gap in your understanding, corrected a previously held misconception, or even identified an area for future research.

In writing your poem you have also potentially created a medium through which to engage new audiences with your work, meaning that you could even use this poem as a starting point for collaborative problem-solving.

So the next time you – or your students – come across a problem that you just don’t seem to be able to solve, put it aside and pick up your pen, keyboard or mobile device and do these three simple steps: list, write, reflect. At the very least it beats waiting for an idea to arrive on the 9.11am from Crewe.  

Sam Illingworth is associate professor in academic practice at Edinburgh Napier University and author of Science Communication Through Poetry . His work focuses on using poetry to develop dialogue between scientists and non-scientists.

If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the THE Campus newsletter .

Read more about Sam’s work focused on using poetry to communicate science .

Take part in Sam's current research project which is using poetry to explore staff's experiences of belonging in higher education.

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10 of the Best Poems about Progress and Social Change

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

What are the best poems about progress – whether they celebrate progress, call for things to improve in the world, or focus on specific examples of social change and reform?

Below, we introduce ten of the best poems which deal with social and political progress of various kinds. These poems belong to different literary periods and are written by poets from various countries, but they are all united by their focus on the power of social change as a tool for good.

1. William Blake, ‘ Jerusalem ’.

Bring me my Bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In Englands green & pleasant Land …

In many ways, it was the Romantics of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who first made poetry a real tool for social change and protest, and William Blake (1757-1827) led the vanguard. ‘Jerusalem’ is one of the most famous hymns around, a sort of alternative national anthem for England.

Yet the poem on which Hubert Parry based his hymn, although commonly referred to as ‘William Blake’s “Jerusalem”’, is actually from a much larger poetic work titled Milton a Poem and was largely ignored when it was published in 1804.

Is the poem the patriotic paean to England – its landscape, its Christian foundations, its courage and indomitable spirit? Well, not entirely. It is also an attack on the Industrial Revolution, and seems to argue that it is possible to build a godly paradise in England, but one must take up arms against the industrialised world in order to do so.

2. Percy Shelley, ‘ England in 1819 ’.

An army, whom liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield; Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed; A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed— Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day …

This poem is not so much about progress as a call for progress: in the poem, Shelley itemises a number of unpleasant and damaging aspects of England in the year 1819, including the recent Peterloo massacre , in which people protesting for political reform were attacked by the army (and a number of people were killed).

It’s a sonnet by the second-generation English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). It’s one of Shelley’s most angry and politically direct poems, but Shelley concludes by offering a glimmer of hope that, out of such stormy events, a better world may be born. If you enjoy this short poem by Shelley, you might also be interested in his longer work, ‘ The Mask of Anarchy ’, which also deals with the need for social change.

3. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘ Ulysses ’.

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die …

Of course, in its broadest sense the word ‘progress’ simply means ‘to keep going on’: to persist, to continue. And in this poem by the Victorian poet Tennyson (1809-92), the ageing hero of the Trojan War, Ulysses (the Roman name for Odysseus), home from his famous ‘odyssey’ across the Mediterranean, decides to eschew retirement in favour of ‘seek[ing] a newer world’. As the poem’s rousing final line has it, Ulysses will continue ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield’.

4. Walt Whitman, ‘ Beat! Beat! Drums! ’

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Make no parley—stop for no expostulation, Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer, Mind not the old man beseeching the young man, Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties, Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow …

This is a marvellously rousing clarion call from Whitman (1819-92), the pioneer of free verse and one of the most important American poets of the nineteenth century (perhaps the most important).

5. Matthew Arnold, ‘ Progress ’.

The Master stood upon the mount, and taught. He saw a fire in his disciples’ eyes; ‘The old law’, they said, ‘is wholly come to naught! Behold the new world rise!’

‘Was it’, the Lord then said, ‘with scorn ye saw The old law observed by Scribes and Pharisees? I say unto you, see ye keep that law More faithfully than these …’

Arnold (1822-88) is now best-remembered for his poem ‘Dover Beach’, but many of his other poems are also worth reading.

This poem is slightly different from many of the others on this list, in that it sees Arnold questioning the idea of ‘progress’ if such social change comes at the expense of forgetting our core values (which, for Arnold, included Christianity). Arnold makes this point by beginning his poem with Jesus – ‘The Master’ – addressing his disciples 1,800 years ago, before contrasting Jesus’ teachings with the Victorian world of Arnold and his readers.

6. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, ‘ Progress ’.

Let there be many windows to your soul, That all the glory of the universe May beautify it. Not the narrow pane Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays That shine from countless sources. Tear away The blinds of superstition; let the light Pour through fair windows broad as truth itself And high as God …

Wilcox (1850-1919) is often derided for her poetry, which some consider to be sentimental or trite, but her work proved hugely popular with many readers. In this poem, Wilcox urges her readers to reject superstition in favour of ‘Reason’ and ‘Knowledge’. She doesn’t reject God, though, but wishes to find a way of getting closer to God, avoiding organised religion. As the poem’s inspiring final lines have it: ‘Be not afraid / To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.’

7. Maxine Kumin, ‘ Progress ’.

Kumin (1925-2014) was an American poet and author who won a Pulitzer Prize for her writing. This marvellous poem is about the progress of human beings but also the progress of language, beginning with that famous seventeenth-century ‘progress’, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress , as its point of departure.

8. Langston Hughes, ‘ I Look at the World ’.

Langston Hughes (1901-67) was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance in New York in the 1920s. Over the course of a varied career he was a novelist, playwright, social activist, and journalist, but it is for his poetry that Hughes is now best-remembered.

In this poem, Hughes describes the world as he sees it as a black American poet: he is filled with hope that he can make the world he sees into the world he dreams of. The ‘world that’s in my mind’ can be realised, even if it doesn’t yet exist.

9. Gwendolyn Brooks, RIOT .

Brooks (1917-2000) was an important American poet whose work often engaged with the lives of Black Americans. This long poem was written in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King (who provides the poem with its epigraph) in 1968, and the social unrest that followed. Brooks’s poem suggests that social progress can be effected not just by protest or action but by thinking, reading, and reflecting.

10. Nikki Giovanni, ‘ Rosa Parks ’.

Giovanni (b. 1943) is a well-known African-American poet and activist, who has written about one of the most significant Civil Rights activists, Rosa Parks, on several occasions (including writing a book for younger readers, Rosa , all about her).

Parks, who played a pivotal role in US Civil Rights, came to widespread attention in December 1955 when, during the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, she resisted racial segregation on a local bus and refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. Giovanni’s poem considers Parks’s role in the Civil Rights movement but also broadens the focus to consider the concerted movement which grew up around the bus boycott.

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Analysis, meaning and summary of Langston Hughes's poem Problems

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A Sweetening All around Me as It Falls

To judgment: an assay, assay only glimpsable for an instant, to spareness: an assay, the woodpecker keeps returning.

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Award-winning poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield is the author of ten collections of poetry, including The Asking: New and Selected Poems  (2023);  Ledger (2020);  The Beauty  (2015), longlisted for the National Book Award;  Come, Thief  (2011), a finalist for the PEN USA Poetry Award; and  Given Sugar, Given Salt  (2001), a finalist for...

• Life Choices

• Poems That Speak Truth: Addressing Problems in Society

Poetry has long been a powerful medium for expressing thoughts, emotions, and observations about the world we live in. From the earliest works of Shakespeare to the modern verses of Maya Angelou, poets have used their words to shed light on the problems that plague society. Through their art, they challenge social norms, provoke contemplation, and inspire change. In this article, we will explore some remarkable poems that confront the problems in society head-on, urging readers to reflect and take action.

Poem 1: "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

Poem 2: "the unknown citizen" by w.h. auden, poem 3: "we real cool" by gwendolyn brooks.

One of the most renowned poets of the 20th century, Maya Angelou, crafted a masterpiece that celebrates resilience in the face of oppression. "Still I Rise," published in 1978, confronts the deep-rooted issues of racism, sexism, and discrimination. Angelou's powerful words serve as a rallying cry for those who have been marginalized and oppressed, reminding them of their inherent strength. With lines like:

"You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise."

Angelou's poem resonates with anyone facing adversity, encouraging them to stand tall, defy societal expectations, and reclaim their power.

W.H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen," published in 1939, is a scathing critique of the dehumanization caused by excessive bureaucracy and conformity in society. The poem satirizes the idea of an "ideal citizen" reduced to mere statistics, devoid of personal identity and individuality. Auden highlights the dangers of a society that values compliance over genuine human connection, prompting readers to question the true cost of societal expectations. This poignant excerpt demonstrates Auden's intent:

"Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."

By emphasizing the indifference of society towards its citizens' well-being, Auden challenges the reader to reflect on the price society pays for its relentless pursuit of uniformity.

Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool," published in 1960, explores the consequences of societal neglect and the allure of self-destructive behavior. Through a deceptively simple structure and rhythmic language, Brooks captures the voices of rebellious youths who drop out of school and engage in risky behavior. The poem serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of societal neglect and the urgent need for intervention. The following lines encapsulate the poem's essence:

"We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We"

Brooks' poem prompts readers to consider the societal factors that contribute to the perpetuation of destructive cycles and the responsibility to provide support and guidance to vulnerable individuals.

Poetry has an unmatched ability to shed light on the problems that plague society, offering a raw and unfiltered perspective on the world we inhabit. Through the examples of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise," W.H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen," and Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool," we glimpse the power of poetry as a catalyst for change. These poets invite us to confront societal issues, challenge the status quo, and strive for a more just and compassionate world. Let these poems be a reminder that our voices can be instruments of transformation, pushing society towards progress and healing.

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Nocturnal Blessing

Don't knock nocturnal but think threes diurnal you'll not find infernal 1 first ask what is your stressing biz to solve its quiz 2 then deeply ponder and no breath squander eyes looking yonder 3 eat well and rest to food digest and you'll be blessed

© MLee Dickens’son 2023 Daniel J Ricketts

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Finally—Poetry Reading Strategies That Work

by Gordana S | Jan 20, 2021 | Student Skills | 0 comments

Table of Contents

Poetry Reading Strategies—Use These Techniques To Make Poetry Fun

High school students often don’t like reading poetry because they believe it’s old-fashioned and hard to understand. If you teach them effective poetry reading strategies, you can show them that poetry is, in fact, fun and relevant.

When you ask yourself how you can teach reading to high school students, your first objective should be to make reading fun . While you may feel poetry is the perfect critical reading exercise , your students are probably unlikely to agree. You can’t rely on your students to fall in love with poetry without teaching them the proper strategies they need to understand it.

When diving into the assigned poem, you want your students to use reading comprehension strategies . Students will have to employ different critical reading skills to analyze poetry. Only then can they approach it with an open mindset—ready to dip into all the hidden and apparent motifs and ideas—and be transformed by the beauty and power of poetry itself. 

What Are Strategies for Reading Poetry?

Credit: Nick Fewings

Analyzing poetry improves reading skills , and reading and writing skills are important for your students to possess. When your students learn to analyze poetry, they can also appreciate it, which can only enhance their love for the written word. 

Since students often believe that poetry is impossible to understand, you should inspire them to see past that popular misconception by teaching them poetry reading strategies.

The Survey of Poetry Reading Strategy , conducted by Ebrahimi and Zainal, grouped poetry reading strategies into roughly three categories:

The purpose of the study was to highlight how students showcase they have understood poetry. Applied appropriately, these strategies ought to inspire your students to:

• Think about the poetry they read actively
• Form the emotional and cognitive attachment with the material
• Express their opinions in word and action

Rosenblatt’s Transactional Theory

Louise Rosenblatt’ Transactional theory of teaching literature affirms the validity of the listed poetry reading strategies. As its name suggests, the theory proposes that the understanding of poetry is achieved at the intersection of the poem with the reader’s mind. The meaning doesn’t exist in the poem itself nor the individual readers’ minds, but it’s derived when the words are understood and connected to one’s background knowledge.

For the transaction to be achieved in the classroom, you need to make sure your students apply the poetry reading strategies that help them:

• Go over the poems actively
• Use their background knowledge to make sense of what’s being read
• Form long-lasting attachment to the material

Applying Poem Reading Strategies—Where To Start?

Credit: Laura Chouette

You should teach your students the existing poetry reading strategies. Students need to know what these strategies are and how to apply them when they read poetry effectively. To achieve that, you will first start with lesson planning. Define the goal, i.e., which strategy you want to teach your students for every poetry lesson you have.

The first poetry lesson you have with your students is probably the most important. How you introduce poetry can affect whether students approach the subject material with an open mind or not.

To apply the poetry reading strategies successfully:

• Introduce your students to poetry carefully
• Determine how you’ll teach the established poetry devices
• Select the poems you’ll teach
• Plan your lessons thoroughly

What’s in a Poem?

“Hello, students. Today, we’re going to take a break from studying.” How does this sound as an opener to a poetry lesson? It’s great because it is unexpected and it seizes their attention, while also informing them you will be doing fun activities in the lesson.

If they are typical high school students, your class may harbor some negative feelings toward poetry, such as that it is:

• Impossible to understand

You must dispel these notions at the beginning of your poetry teaching lessons and turn your student’s attitudes toward poetry from negative to positive.

How you introduce a poetry lesson to your students is key. The first rule is not to give them any definition of the genre. Instead, you want every one of your students to have their individual outlook on poetry.

You can take a page out of John Keating’s book and tell your students that poetry:

• Isn’t written to be memorized
• Is relatable
• Cannot be defined
• Is to be found in their favorite song lyrics
• Is written by ‘wackos’ that have a secret to share

Be careful not to promote the popular notion that poetry contains cryptic messages that are nigh on impossible to decipher. Your students are probably already afraid that they will not be able to understand the hidden meanings in verses. When you tell them that poems will let them in on a secret, make sure they understand that poetry can give them an epiphany or something they can relate to.

Give an example from your personal life. Tell them how Yeats’ “ Sailing to Byzantium ” made you realize you’re no longer a young person who had the whole world at their feet, but that that was all right because no one is for a long time, and you can’t wait to get to “Byzantium” as it is. You can tell them how you were relieved when reading Keats’ “ Ode to a Nightingale ” because you discovered you weren’t the only person who gets a “purple-stained mouth” when drinking wine.

To Teach or Not To Teach Theory—That Is the Question

For your students to understand poetry, they need to be able to recognize the established poetry devices—from meters to figures of speech. Giving textbook definitions of poetry elements with some examples next to them isn’t the best approach.

You need to determine whether you want to teach your students poetry techniques in a separate lesson or make your students notice them as they read and come to love poetry.

Make sure you let your students know why these poetry devices exist. In the past, people didn’t have recording devices, so the poets needed to fit their verses into the structures that would be easy to memorize.

Your students should be able to recognize the following poetry conventions:

Use examples to demonstrate to your students how knowing these poetry elements helps them understand and experience poetry more profoundly. For comparison, you can distribute poems where these conventions were followed and where authors broke all the rules to see how your students will respond.

You also want to let your students know you are going to teach them the strategies that will help them analyze and enjoy poetry.

A Carefully Selected Poem Is a Joy Forever

If you want to get your students excited about reading and analyzing poetry, a carefully selected poem will do the job. You can never go wrong with assigning poems with titles that will pique your students’ interest from the get-go. Here are several ideas:

• “ Because I could not stop for death ” by Emily Dickinson
• “ We Real Cool ” by Gwendolyn Brooks
• “ The Raven ” by Edgar Allen Poe
• “ If ” by Rudyard Kipling
• “ Homage to my hips ” by Lucille Clifton
• “ Do not go gentle into that good night ” by Dylan Thomas

It’s also always a good idea to select poems that are classified by themes, so your students can explore the same ideas while analyzing one set of poems. They can also have a homework assignment to find the poem or song that corresponds to the given theme themselves. They can bring the verses and song lyrics to class and compare how the two are similar or different.

Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone, Plan Your Lessons

When you have all the strategies you want to teach your students and the poems to demonstrate them, you want to plan each lesson carefully. Here’s what to do:

• Set the objective/s for each lesson
• Design a warm-up activity that will get students excited
• Tell students the lesson objective to motivate them
• Select an activity for each strategy you want to teach
• Think of the homework you’ll assign beforehand
• Allocate the time for each activity
• Design back-up activities
• Think of a cool-down activity

Using Reading Strategies for Poetry in Your Classroom

Credit: Thought Catalog

Whether your students apply the poetry reading strategies effectively depends on the activities you assign in your lessons and how well you execute them.

Here are poetry reading activities you can make your own:

• Coming up with original poetry definitions
• Boosting the students’ background knowledge
• Reading poems multiple times
• Dealing with unknown vocabulary
• Using apps to teach poetry
• Acting out poetry

Offer Original Definitions of Poetry

Students don’t like exhaustive definitions as it is, and when it comes to poetry, no textbook definition will make them excited to analyze poems.  

When you introduce poetry to your students, give them an example definition that is unique to you as a person. The sillier this definition is, the better. Now you want your students to do the same. Tell them to define poetry themselves by offering their unique opinions of it. It can be anything from two words to a meticulously memorized textbook definition.

As you go on analyzing poetry with your students, you want them to revise their definitions. This activity should encourage them to:

• Form a personal attachment to poetry
• Use their own words to define it
• Dispel the preconceived negative emotions toward poetry

Equipping Students With the Knowledge They Need

When reading any text, students connect its meaning with what they already know about the world, even if they do it unconsciously. Making connections between a poem’s meaning and one’s background knowledge of the world is a strategy students should use when reading poetry.

You should teach students to activate their background knowledge so that they can:

• Anticipate what the poem is about
• Analyze the already-read poem
• Appreciate the poem more

The problem arises when students don’t possess the necessary prior knowledge to understand a poem fully. Let’s take the example of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s “ They Flee From Me .” After reading the poem for the first time—without knowing anything about it—your student would be:

• Unable to get the gist of the poem
• Confused at the imagery of birds and the importance they have for the speaker
• Bored to death at the subject matter that seemingly has no relevance to their own lives

You should work with your students so that they understand the techniques used in the poem. You should also tell them of the time period and the implications the verses in the poem had back then. By doing that, you give them the knowledge about the time period that they need if they want to understand the poem.

Let students know that Wyatt lived in a time when poets were considered the edgiest rock stars of society. Tell them that they should replace the imagery of birds in the poem with that of lovers. Your students will be intrigued enough to get the gist of the poem—before even analyzing it.

Presenting and Reading

Read the selected poems to your students multiple times, if need be. Then, have them read the poems by themselves.

It’s crucial that you don’t stress students out by demanding a certain understanding from them.

Here’s a fun technique you can use—tell your students to jot down one word that best describes what they felt when they:

• Heard the poem recited by you
• Read the poem by themselves
• Analyzed and discussed the poem’s meanings

Students now have four different words that exemplify the four different emotional and cognitive stages they went through as they heard, read, recited, and analyzed the poem. The activity teaches students that reading poetry is an immersive experience. It also shows them how they can uncover the hidden meanings when they open themselves to analyzing and discussing the poem.

Highlight the Unknown Words

If certain words in poems hinder your student’s understanding of them, you should have them look the words up. When you recite a poem to your students, make sure they have a printed copy before them. Students can highlight all the unfamiliar words when first hearing the poem from you or reading it themselves.

When you go through with your lesson, you can ask your students whether they can still infer the meaning without knowing these words. Only if they can’t understand the words when they know the context can they look them up.

Install Poetry Reading Apps

One of the best aspects of employing technology in the classroom is that you can use some of the best apps for teaching reading to make your students fall in love with poetry. Instruct your students to install Pocket Poetry , Poetry Everywhere , or Poetry Foundation apps and bring the poems they’ve found using the app to the next lesson.

Act Out Verses

Some of the best fun you can have while analyzing both prose and poetry with your students is to have them read lines as characters. The crucial part of this exercise is not to let your students stay at their desks. Organize an acting session, assign characters to a group of students, and have them recite their lines.

This will only be successful if your students have already understood the poem. Of course, plays are the best reading material for this activity, but you can work with individual poems too. For example, a dialogue between a speaker and the raven in Poe’s “The Raven” can be a blast—especially when your students know that the raven is the speaker’s subconscious. 

What Do You Do To Make Your Students Love Reading?

While poetry should be read and enjoyed for its own sake, there are other reasons you want your students to understand how poetry works. Poetry helps your students develop cognitive, critical reading, and problem-solving skills. It also helps them realize how powerful language can be.

Since poetry is important both for your student’s personal satisfaction and professional growth, you need to implement the right strategies to teach it. If you have any ideas besides the ones mentioned, we are interested in hearing them.

Write to us, and let’s bring poetry closer to our student’s hearts and minds!

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Rhyme and reason – why a university professor uses poetry to teach math

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, Penn State

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Ricardo Martinez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Title of course:

The Ways Math and Poetry Can Open Your Eyes to the World

What prompted the idea for the course?

I have always enjoyed writing poetry. As a high school mathematics teacher, I recall telling my students that everything is and can be connected to math, even creative writing. Then, as a graduate student, I read about people using “I am” poem templates for young people to express who they are through a series of “I am” statements, and I thought to myself, where is the “I am” math poem template? So I created one .

I then started working on what I call problem-posing poetry, which are poems connected to a social issue and that can be used as alternatives to traditional math word problems. Working with Yousef Kara , who is a poet studying to become a teacher, we learned to see poetry as a way to understand the real world before connecting to math learning. We also began to use poetry to reflect on prior math learning. After using math poetry with high schoolers and teachers, it became apparent it should be a part of my math methods courses for future teachers.

What does the course explore?

The course explores the idea of poetry as a rich experience before, during and after math learning connected to real-world issues.

The “I am” math poem template is an example of poetry before math. The prompts used in the template allow the teacher to incorporate students’ interests when learning math in the future. For example, the last prompt shows what students are passionate about, and teachers should use that interest in their teaching of math.

Problem-posing poems like “Number Sense,” written by Ricardo Martinez, show how a poem can use actual data to become a math problem for students to solve. Poetry after math learning can best be captured by Yousef’s poem “The Wrong Bathroom, Continuously,” a reflection on trans identity related to functions that model relationships between two quantities.

This poem demonstrates concepts of math through exploring different types of continuous functions in calculus. Functions that oscillate, approach opposite infinities and disjointed functions, all of which make it impossible to find the exact value of a limit. Hence the line, “You cannot pin me down to a single point.”

Here is an excerpt from the poem:

I am a continuous function.

I oscillate My gender, in constant motion, And I don’t care if I am unrecognizable to you

I approach both infinities From the left and the right Expanding with each self discovery. Expanding far beyond your comprehension

I am disjointed Deconstructed and decolonized. I teleport between and beyond genders You cannot pin me down to a single point

It shows how learning more about math expands our vocabulary and understanding of what we experience.

Why is this course relevant now?

The beauty of using poetry is that it makes math more exciting and allows it to connect to any topic or idea. Math poetry becomes even more critical today as people need an outlet to communicate their truths about societal injustices like trans people’s rights, bans on Black history or Islamophobia. Math and poetry create new metaphors that allow people to better understand societal issues along with themselves and others.

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

A key takeaway from the course is that math is a vital part of each person, and poetry can help people see that math is all around us.

What will the course prepare students to do?

By exploring math and poetry, I believe they, as aspiring teachers, will begin to question how they were taught – for example, the use of timed tests and learning with no real-world connections. A lot of people say they don’t like math, when, in truth, they have never knowingly experienced math connected to their culture, values, desires and dreams. Math and poetry work to reclaim how we all see, experience and live with math every day.

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problem-solving

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Problem-Not-Solving

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Standing in front of the Canelleto of Venice’s “ghetto vecchio”, “ghetto”  the word for “foundry,”contemplating those arms and harms. I sit down in ghetto, I sit here in ghetto vecchio.

And metal was cast in the dream of the ghetto and metal was forged for cannons 1390 in “ur” in “pre” in the nightmare of ghetto and laboratory of ghetto a metal mentality for it takes a long harm a long arm a long hatching this mentality of force of problem-not-solving your ghetto and in the name of decree and forging a metal mentality with harming arms and where you can live under a low ceiling where you can live and problem-not-solving 5,000 in a crammed room un-dream it now of your nightmare not allowed into the light of other campos and canals your arms held in not able to reach out across a map a city divided and problem-not-solving.  Un-dream, un-dream  problem-not-solving the nightmare of ghetto or problem-not-solving your nightmare of ghetto of “ur” time of this ghetto. You want to stretch your human fleshly arms outside the walls toward campos and canals. You  want to stretch your rare fleshly arms out of here reach out of here reach out of harm’s way  towards campos and canals but you can only live here in this curfew  of “ur” time this “pre” time, before the dawn until Napoleon allows you can you can live elsewhere, o please step outside please step aside you say to  Palestine, you who were in pre-“ur” pre-dreamtime ghetto astride campos and canals. You are my problem I am not your problem grazie . And under Austrian rule come back inside ghetto and this “ur” nightmare 1797.  This “pre” dawn of “state” of arsenal. Of Palestine. Old  way back “ur”-Palestine, what of its rip and tears. Its tears and weeping its ghetto. I mark this for you I say this for you (tears and more weeping), carved in stone in metal of poem-time in scripture of 21 st century winds. And then the dream of a full fledged fulltime arsenal  tears and weeping toward metal what do we do what do we have to or why have we to do air-strikes problem-not-solving 13 dead again in  ghetto Palestine when then arsenal  of problem-not-solving is long range rocket revenge toward Ashkelon no one hurt in Ashkelon 10 kilometers north of Gaza. O remember Gaza and then revenge in air strikes 13 dead in Gaza, ripped apart in Gaza and the fine elliptical gallery for women only, sit here, my dear downed dead decimated sister my one next to me in this “ur” dream nightmare of ghetto and arsenal and Palestine. Describe the body parts you sifted from the trees down from the scattered trees of Zion of Palestine. Three wells of Zion, the scattered trees of Zion, the miracles and tribulations of Zion of Palestine. The three ways to un-dream the problem. The dear dead body parts. Enter here the dream the nightmare of ghetto and the end of ghetto. And say 3 three times:

I will not do to them what has been done to me.    I will not do to them what has been done to me.       I will not do to them what has been done to me.

What to do what to do as the merchant stranger Shakespeare  ghetto merchant works the Banco Rosso “real and tangible” or other side hits Sderot  with Grad rockets from Iran.  Hit with metal mentality forged in metal. Hit the word “Sderot” hit  the word “Grad” hit with harm your problem-not-solving scary alliances 4 boys between 8 and 12 dear dead body parts east of Jabaliya un-dream the dead take back the word “dead”. Not a jubilee. And more in Gaza and 2,000 in ghetto Gaza. This is the old “ur” held vision of unsolved Zion and now the guards in the nightmare that is new century inventory of the state of arsenals and the unsolved now divided Palestine building of more arsenals in the arms that harm and reach out and harm human and fleshly. I will sit here I will sit here and sound here and reach out arms human and fleshly, to ghetto to Gaza.

Originally published in The Iovis Trilogy (Coffee House Press, 2011). Copyright © by Anne Waldman. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

More by this poet

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“here’s one” “here’s another one” “here’s one, there…over there…”

willow rods, very consoling          we’ll clear the ground you don’t have to be a Scythian…

and then the ones behaving more like women use a different method

From “denouement”

Resistance. Had to resist. Ward off. Deflect. Exorcise. Defy. Apotropaic experiments to shift tone & danger. Apo , away, trepein , to turn. Make the day an amulet. And there were women everywhere across the land, children women, and girl women and they women and fluid women and men who were women and boy women and women from the past on the tongues of mind & ear and images of women everywhere: ancestor women. Out on the streets. And everyone woman that day. I am woman they said. And it had already happened if you stopped to think.

Anthropocene Blues

sound de-territorializes weather and my love clings to you sings to you in the “new weathers” within a tragedy of the Anthropocene

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Let’s Read a Poem! What Type of Poetry Boosts Creativity?

Małgorzata osowiecka.

1 Warsaw Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

Alina Kolańczyk

2 Faculty in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland

Associated Data

Datasets are available upon request. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

Poetry is one of the most creative uses of language. Yet the influence of poetry on creativity has received little attention. The present research aimed to determine how the reception of different types of poetry affect creativity levels. In two experimental studies, participants were assigned to two conditions: poetry reading and non-poetic text reading. Participants read poems (Study 1 = narrative/open metaphors; Study 2 = descriptive/conventional metaphors) or control pieces of non-poetic text. Before and after the reading manipulation, participants were given a test to determine levels of divergent thinking (DT; i.e., fluency, flexibility, and originality). Additionally, in both studies, the impact of frequent contact with poetry was examined. In Study 1 ( N = 107), participants showed increased fluency and flexibility after reading a narrative poem, while participants who read the non-poetic text showed a decrease in fluency and originality. In Study 2 ( N = 131) reception of conventional, closed metaphorization significantly lowered fluency and flexibility of thinking (compared to reading non-poetic text). The most critical finding was that poetry exposure could either increase or decrease creativity level depending on the type of poetic metaphors and style of poetic narration. Furthermore, results indicate that long-term exposure to poetry is associated with creativity. This interest in poetry can be explained by an ability to immerse oneself in a poetry content (i.e., a type of empathy) and the need for cognitive stimulation. Thus, this paper contributes a new perspective on exposure to poetry in the context of creativity and discusses possible individual differences that may affect how this type of art is received. However, future research is necessary to examine these associations further.

Introduction

Creativity is often understood in different ways. In an elitist view, creativity means eminent works of art created by great, gifted artists. In contrast, creativity has also been described as a common cognitive process, which can be improved ( Finke et al., 1992 ). This more popular approach has been labeled by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) as “little c Creativity." Previous research ( Mednick, 1962 ) has shown that creative thinking is based on flatter concept hierarchies, enabling remote associations to be more easily made. Csikszentmihalyi states that this kind of creativity is part of everyday human life, and can be observed even in young children. This type of “common" creativity results in more efficient problem solving, better performance on tasks measuring creative potential, and can even bring about the production of outstanding works of art. The current research concentrates on “little c Creativity," which can be improved by specific interventions under specific circumstances, and then observed and measured ( Guilford, 1950 ; Finke et al., 1992 ; Runco, 1999 ).

In this article, we examined whether the creative potential of a poem can be beneficial for receivers by testing whether one-time reception of poetry can influence the quality of divergent thinking (DT; i.e., multidirectional and/or potentially creative thinking). Additionally, we investigated if this impact depends on the type of poetic metaphors and/or the style of poetic narration.

There are several studies that have examined how humans produce metaphors ( Paivio, 1979 ; Chiappe and Chiappe, 2007 ; Silvia and Beaty, 2012 ; Beaty and Silvia, 2013 ), but little is known about metaphor comprehension, especially within the context of poetry. This research has inspired many books that attempt to teach the skills necessary to generate imaginative and interesting metaphors (e.g., Plotnik, 2007 ). It may be that the ability to associate remote ideas, facts, and elements of the environment, which is a key factor in metaphor production, may also be a key factor in creativity. Thus, these skills that can be taught to improve metaphorization may also overlap with skills to improve general creative ability.

Most psychological research on poetry has focused on the influence of text structure (i.e., rhythm, rhymes) on emotional reception of poems (e.g., Jakobson, 1960 ; Turner and Pöppel, 1983 ; Lerdahl, 2001 ; Obermeier et al., 2013 ). Additionally, many studies that have focused on poets’ creativity have also collected data revealing links between mental disorders and functioning (e.g., Stirman and Pennebaker, 2001 ; Djikic et al., 2006 ). Further, previous research has also examined the relationship between poetic training and creativity (e.g., Baer, 1996 ; Andonovska-Trajkovska, 2008 ; Cheng et al., 2010 ). However, the current manuscript focuses on the influence of poems as creative products that may affect receivers’ levels of creative thinking. This influence, however, likely depends on the type of poetry received.

The efficiency of DT is a key measure of idea generation (e.g., Baer, 1996 ; Runco, 1999 ; Nęcka, 2012 ). In contrast to convergent thinking, DT enables problem solving in diverse and potentially valuable ways. It often involves redefining the problem, referring to analogies, redirecting one’s thoughts, and breaking barriers in thinking. Previous research has found that spreading activation in the semantic network is indicative of DT ( Martindale, 1989 ; Ashton-James and Chartrand, 2009 ; Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009 ). Developing associations between distant ideas is a basic mechanism of creative thinking ( Mednick, 1962 ). For instance, Benedek et al. (2012) provided evidence that the ability to generate remote associations makes creative problem solving easier. Gilhooly et al. (2007) showed that ignoring close associations (but choosing remote ones) and breaking the stiff, typical relationships between ideas plays a crucial role in effective DT. The current studies are based on the hypothesis that the process of DT can be supported by poetry comprehension.

Poetry, which contains remote associations described through metaphors and analogies, combines non-related notions in atypical ways ( Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ). In general, metaphoric expression often involves mapping between abstract and more concrete concepts ( Glucksberg, 2001 , 2003 ); therefore, the comprehension of metaphors requires the activation of a broader set of semantic associations. This is due to connecting two remote parts of a metaphor (theme and vehicle) into a meaningful expression ( Paivio, 1979 ; Kenett et al., 2018 ). Poetry reception can involve readiness to notice similarities between remote categories, which can be a crucial ability in generating creative ideas (e.g., Mednick, 1962 ; Koestler, 1964 ; Martindale, 1989 ). Training in metaphorical thinking results in the broadening of categories ( Nęcka and Kubiak, 1989 ), which leads to increased DT ( Trzebiński, 1981 ). Glucksberg et al. (1982) have shown that poetry reading broadens the scope of associations. Metaphor, based on remote associations, provides a new way of understanding reality and human feelings. In addition to fostering multidirectional and creative thinking, metaphor can also help individuals adjust to the surrounding world ( Kolańczyk, 1991 ; Nęcka, 2012 ). Metaphorization is, structurally, the most essential element of the poetic art (e.g., Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ; Kovecses, 2010 ). Rhythm, syllabification, and word combinations in well-written poetry construct a meaningful whole aside from very remote notions ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ). Thus, poetry comprehension can change readers’ DT; however, this impact likely depends on type of poetic metaphors and the narration used by the poet.

Thinking expressed in metaphors always involves the flexible activation and manipulation of acquired knowledge ( Benedek et al., 2014 ); even though metaphors are not always creative, even in poetry. Understanding a conventional metaphor is not intellectually challenging: comprehending such expressions is based on the retrieval of well-known meaning from memory ( Kenett et al., 2018 ). For example, love can be understood metaphorically as a nutrient. The metaphors “starved for affection” and “given strength by love” are not particularly creative, as they are based on a highly conventional metaphor (i.e., love = nutrient). These metaphors are ostensibly viewed as new by receivers of poetry, although they are not flexible or original. Hausman (1989) writes about two specific types of metaphors; one he describes as impoverished, frozen, and closed; the other, he refers to as original, divergent, and open. It seems logical to use terms like closed/convergent and open/divergent when referring to metaphors, which can emphasize a functional dimension of how these types of metaphors are used in poetry and casual language. To the best of our knowledge, however, previous research has never introduced this distinction in terms of differences between metaphors. Instead, Beaty and Silvia (2013) uses the metaphor labels conventional (i.e., familiar) and creative (i.e., novel).

Until now, no typologies of metaphors have been introduced that highlight differences in how poetry is constructed and how this impacts recipients. It seems that poetry uses at least these two kinds of metaphorization. Both of these can be adaptive for the recipient, because creativity requires both accommodation and assimilation ( Ayman-Nolley, 2010 ). Therefore, recipients’ reception of novel and open metaphors could result in more flexible and original thinking, whereas reception of conventional, well known, and closed metaphors could result in less flexible and less creative problem-solving.

In addition to the types of metaphors used, poetry is also characterized by content. One conceptualization of poetry describes it as a certain type of story, which is a separate and coherent whole, through which people express their thoughts and/or opinions ( Heiden, 2014 ). In this case, the author can bring an abstract idea closer to the reader through narrative imagery. This type of poetry can result in the receiver taking on another’s (i.e., the author’s) point of view, hence improving creativity. Moreover, this narrative type of poetry is an open task for readers, because understanding is reached based on the receiver’s own experience and understanding. The second type, noncreative poetry, is more conservative, and includes variously structured, commonplace (i.e., conventional) metaphors, which are often clichés based on common-sense regularities, and are sometimes the contents of parables or prayers. Metaphors in this type of poetry delineate and conventionalize meaning; they describe the world in ways known to everyone (e.g., Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ; Gibbs, 1994 ; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ; Kovecses, 2010 ).

The general goals of this research were to determine whether the reception of poetry stimulates creative thinking, and whether poetry’s impact on creativity varies depending on the type of poetry. Accordingly, we formulated the following research hypotheses:

• simple 1. Reception of an unconventional, open metaphor poem will stimulate the generation of creative ideas (i.e., improves DT from baseline).
• simple 2. Reception of conventional poetry either will not influence, or will negatively influence the generation of creative ideas (i.e., no increase or decrease in DT from baseline).
• simple 3. DT will be increased after the reception of open metaphor poetry, when compared to reading a neutral text.
• simple 4. DT will be decreased after reception of conventional poetry, when compared to a neutral text.

In Study 1, participants were exposed to a poem with narrative imagery expressing an author’s point of view and utilizing open metaphors. In Study 2, participants were exposed to a conventional poem that employed a biographical approach, comprised of commonplace metaphors and aphorisms.

Participants

Participants were recruited from high-school classes. All participants resided in Poland. A total of 107 participants completed the study ( M age = 17.46; SD = 1.03; 53 female). Students from the pool were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Upon entering the lab, participants were given a consent form and a brief explanation of the study procedures. The study was conducted in a group setting, with the number of participants ranging from 10 to 15. Participants provided written, informed consent, and were free to withdraw from the research at any time without giving reason or justification for withdrawing. Minors participated in research with written parental consent. Participants received points for behavior as compensation. Their participation was anonymous. The study was approved by a local ethics committee (clearance number: WKE/S 15/VI/1).

DT Measurement

To measure DT, participants were administered versions of the Question Generation task ( Chybicka, 2001 ). This task was conducted using a test-retest design (to observe creativity change). Participants listed as many questions as they could regarding an unambiguous picture (baseline image from Chybicka, 2001 ; post-test, a comparable version from Corbalan and Lopez, 1992 ). The fluency, flexibility, and the originality of answers were evaluated by three independent judges. Fluency was the total number of meaningful responses given by participant; flexibility (i.e., diversity of categories) was measured as the number of different categories; and originality was calculated as the number of original, novel, and interesting responses.

Poetry—Szymborska’s Poem

In Study 1, we chose Szymborska (2012) poem Utopia as an example of narrative, non-rhythmic poetry. In Utopia , Szymborska creates a sort of plot or story, which she conveys to the reader in a very metaphorical, condensed form. Szymborska’s narration in Utopia is characterized by ethical and metaphysical themes (e.g., “ As if all you can do here is leave and plunge, never to return, into the depths. Into unfathomable life & The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple, sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It” ). Six independent judges, all of which were Polish language teachers, filled in a short scale which contained three questions about affectivity of the chosen poem (e.g., “ the poem is neutral ”). They confirmed that the poem was emotionally stable, allowing for control over the influence of both rhythm and emotion on participants’ creativity.

Control Text

For the control text, we used the description of a cooking device (Speedcook, RPOL, Mielec, Poland). This description approximated the word count of a poem and did not contain any metaphors (e.g., “ Our kitchen appliance has a classic, elegant design. This device could replace every cooking appliance , a steam cooking tool, and a juicer” ). Device descriptions are often made according to the same pattern and in a comparable way. The description that we used contained close, functional associations between concepts. The text is constructed to provide concrete information to the recipient. The device description was obtained from an Internet website ( Wachowicz, 2014 ).

Contact With Poetry Scale

We developed a scale to measure poetry contact that addressed passion, as well as frequency of reading poetry and taking part in poetic meetings. Agreement/disagreement with statements was assessed. Statements included “ I am passionate about poetry,” “ In my free time, I very often read poems,” “ I write poems and share my work with others,” “I have several favorite poets,” “Sometimes, I put down my creative thoughts onto paper,” and “I was once an unpublished writer.” Participants answered the five items on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The reliability of the tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.83).

First, participants read introductory information highlighting the importance of their participation in the study and a confidentiality statement (assuring that participants would remain anonymous and encouraging them to answer all questions truthfully). Then, participants received the first version of the Question Generation Task ( Chybicka, 2001 ). Participants wrote questions about a picture printed on a piece of paper for 10 min. Next, participants were randomized into one of two groups: (a) the experimental group, which read the poem; or (b) the control group, which read the cooker description. Participants were instructed to silently read the poem twice, in a calm and attentive manner ( Kraxenberger and Menninghaus, 2016 ). After reading the text, participants answered two questions; one regarding understanding the content (“ I understand the meaning of the text”) and the other an affective estimation of the text (“ In my opinion, the text is pleasant ”). Items were rated on a 6-point scale, with response options ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). Then, participants completed a parallel version of the drawing from the Question Generation Task ( Corbalan and Lopez, 1992 ). Finally, participants completed the devised scale concerning contact with poetry. Duration of the entire procedure was approximately 35 min. After completing the scale, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. We also collected postal addresses from participants who were interested in the results.

Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY, United States). The data from all participants were included in analyses and a significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests.

All three DT indicators were scored by three independent raters. A Kendall’s W of 1.00 was calculated for fluency at both time points; a W of 0.75 and 0.72 for flexibility in the first and the second measurement, respectively; and 0.76 for originality in both measurements ( W greater than 0.70 = good concordance). All indicators were analyzed separately via three repeated-measures analyses of variances (ANOVAs) with effect of measurement (first vs. second) as the within-subjects factor and group (poetry vs. description) as the between-subjects factor.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for fluency revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 12.12, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.1], but no main effects. Pairwise comparisons showed a significant improvement in fluency scores on the second measurement compared to the first in the poetry group [ t (56) = 2.57, p = 0.013; Cohen’s d = 0.35]. Moreover, the control group differed in fluency across the measurements. Specifically, participants in this group demonstrated significantly lower scores in the second measurement than in the first [ t (52) = 2.44, p = 0.018; Cohen’s d = 0.35]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure1 1 .

Mean fluency scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for flexibility also revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 10.15, p < 0.01, η 2 = 0.09]. Further, a main effect of measurement was observed [ F (1,105) = 17.52, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.14]. The second picture of the DT task led to more flexible answers ( M = 4.83, SD = 1.63) than did the first one ( M = 4.25, SD = 1.56). Two-tailed, paired t -tests for two measurements in the poetry group yielded significant differences [ t (56) = 5.47, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.75]. Extended data are presented in Figure ​ Figure2 2 .

Mean flexibility scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for originality also revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 23.03, p = 0.01, η 2 = 0.18]. Additionally, a main effect of measurement was observed [ F (1,105) = 12.12, p < 0.01, η 2 = 0.11]. The first picture in the creativity test triggered more original answers ( M = 2.85, SD = 1.18) than did the second ( M = 2.34, SD = 1.71). Two-tailed paired t -tests yielded significant differences between the first and the second measurement only in the description group [ t (50) = 5.09, p < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.75]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure3 3 .

Mean originality scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

To verify how individual differences in poetic interests are connected to DT, we also performed a linear regression analysis predicting DT on the first measurement (before the manipulation). As expected, flexibility was predicted by the level of poetic interests, F (1,56) = 3.29, p = 0.075, b = 0.24 (a near-significant trend). However, fluency and originality were not predicted by level of poetic interests. Further, no significant predictions were observed for the second measurement of creativity.

Results of the experiment support our hypotheses to a large extent, however, there are some issues that remain to be elucidated. Reading of poetry improved two creativity indicators (fluency and flexibility), while reading of the control (descriptive) text caused a decline in fluency and originality. Although these results are interesting, the question of why reading poetry does not improve originality remains. It is possible that reading this type of poetic narration introduces insufficient changes to the semantic network, so that individuals were unable to improve in the only indicator of product quality (i.e., originality). Additionally, flexibility did not decrease as a result of reading instructions. Likely because the cooker is compared with similar devices, which requires looking at it from different perspectives. Moreover, frequent contact with poetry predicted flexibility. These results suggest that the reception of narrative and open poetry broadens activation of the semantic network and allows for flexible switching between remote categories; however, it is not connected with the creation of very original solutions.

The chosen poem combines both abstract and concrete concepts. The abstract ones (e.g., obvious, understanding ) are explained in concrete or imaginative terms (e.g., valley, tree ), which facilitate a distinct view of reality ( Kirsch and Guthrie, 1984 ). Contact with this kind of poetry can diversify experience, which can lead to increased flexibility ( Ritter et al., 2012 ). Hence, poetry reception may result in diverse idea generation. Flexibility is the ability to use various categories beyond the boundaries of their literal meaning. Many researchers agree that reception of poetry inhibits automatic associations, thereby producing ideas without value ( Kirsch and Guthrie, 1984 ; Halonen, 1995 ). Creative thinking is often connected with breaking typical patterns of thinking and seeing the world in another way ( Amabile, 1996 ), which relates to intellectual risk-taking ( Nickerson, 1999 ).

The lack of change in originality scores may be related to the character of the poem. Utopia is rather calm, balanced, and narrative. As such, it may be able to weaken resistance to seeing things from another point of view (flexibility). In contrast, reception of such a poem may inhibit original idea production until the whole of the poem is understood. Therefore, the reception of this type of poetry may have a buffering effect on intrinsically motivated original ideas. The purification of the dominant influence of the author’s unique perspective is possible in more emotional and cathartic poetry. Thus, increased originality may be more visible after reception of cathartic metaphoric poems, which presents the extraordinary experience of a poet.

Finally, showing that the level of poetic interest predicts flexibility (measured prior to manipulation) is in line with previous research; specifically, that long-term contact with poetry is associated with creative problem solving ( McGovern and Hogshead, 1990 ). As Sternberg and Lubart (1999) claim, people’s interest in poetry can increase creative potential understood as seeing problems in unique ways.

Study 1 showed the positive impact of narrative poetry on DT. Subsequently, Study 2 utilized conventional poetry, with the hypothesis that reception of this type of poetry would not enhance creativity. We wanted also reveal why individuals demonstrate spontaneous contact with poetry, which may be essential for receiving this kind of art, and thus increased performance on tasks requiring DT ability. These elements were empathy (i.e., the tendency to become immersed in the poetry content; Davis, 1983 ), and need for cognition (NFC; construed as willingness to interact with the cognitively demanding text of a poem; Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ). Poems can be challenging cognitive tasks. As such, understanding a poem requires the creation of complex meaning from specific words and exploration of multifaceted ideas ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ).

We predicted that the variables listed above would be crucial for initial DT levels (i.e., baseline, recorded during the first DT test); but that these individual difference effects would disappear after the manipulation. We also predicted that reception of conventional poetry (and the control text) would lead to a poorer performance on the DT task after its reception.

Participants were recruited from high-school classes. All participants resided in Poland. A total of 131 participants completed the study ( M age = 16.36; SD = 0.71; 84 female). Students from this pool were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Upon entering the lab, participants were given a consent form and a brief explanation of the study procedures. The study was conducted in a group setting, with the number of participants ranging from 10 to 15. Participants provided written, informed consent, and were free to withdraw from the research at any time without giving reason or justification for withdrawing and received course credit as compensation. Minors participated in research with written parental consent. Participants received course credit for participation, and their participation was anonymous. The study was approved by a local ethics committee (clearance number: WKE/S 15/VI/1).

DT measurement protocols for this study were identical to those used in Study 1.

Gustafson’s Poem

Lars Gustafson’s poetry is philosophical; descriptive; and uses well-known metaphors of “life as a machine,” which was very popular in the 20th century. We used the Polish version of Gustafsson (2013) poem, Silence of The World before Bach , which, in a very descriptive way, presents a biography of Bach and the changes in the world connected with his music/art works. It uses commonplace metaphors, which describe the world in well-known ways (e.g., “ Soprano never in helpless love twined round the gentler movements of the flute ”), making it an excellent example of conventional poetry. The chosen poem does not rhyme and is emotionally stable, which was confirmed by three judges, in a manner similar to Study 1.

Gustafson’s Poem Description

For a control text, we created a description of the poem’s content. It approximated the word count of the poem and did not contain any metaphors.

This scale was an extended version of the task created for Study 1, which measures passion for poetry, as well as frequency of poetry reading and taking part in poetic meetings (e.g., “ I am passionate about poetry,” “ In my free time I very often read poems,” and “Poetry is incredibly difficult for me” ). Participants answered the eight items on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The reliability of the tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.853).

The Rational Experiential Inventory—NFC (Reflective) Scale

We used the Polish version of the Rational Experiential Inventory (REI; Epstein et al., 1996 ; Shiloh et al., 2002 ). This tool consists of two dimensions: an analytical-rational style of thinking and an intuitive-experimental style of thinking. The REI was devised based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ( Briggs and Myers, 1976 ) and the NFC scale ( Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ), which defines the type of motivation described by the authors as the need for knowledge cognition. The NFC scale was used to build a rational (reflective) REI scale, opposite of the intuition scale. The most important element of this measure for the current study was the NFC scale. The REI is a 40-item Likert scale with response options ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ) The reliability of this tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α for whole REI = 0.821, α for the NFC scale = 0.743).

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)—Fantasy Scale

The IRI is a questionnaire addressing empathy. It consists of four scales: Perspective Taking, Fantasy, Empathic Concern, and Personal Distress. In the current study, the Fantasy scale was used. This scale measures the tendency to imaginatively transpose oneself into fictional situations, as well as into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies, and plays. This scale consists of 7 items (e.g., “ I really get involved with the feelings of the characters in a novel ,” “ I am usually objective when I watch a movie or play, and I do not often get completely caught up in it ”). The IRI involves a 5-point response option scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). The reliability of the Fantasy Scale, as expressed by Cronbach’s α, was 0.682.

Participants first completed the baseline creativity test. Then, participants were randomized into one of two groups; (a) the experimental group that read the poem, and (b) the control group that read the description of its content. Participants read his/her respective documents twice. After the second reading, participants completed the second creativity test and completed the questionnaires listed above, using pen-and-paper procedures. The order of the creativity tests was counterbalanced across participants. After completing the scale, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. We also collected postal addresses from participants interested in the results.

Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY, United States). Two participants were excluded from analyses due to lack some data. A significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests.

All three DT indicators were scored by five independent raters. Kendall’s W = 0.9 for fluency in both measurements; W = 0.78 and 0.72 for flexibility in the first and the second measurement, respectively; and W = 0.7 for originality in both measurements. All indicators were analyzed separately by means of three repeated-measures ANOVAs with effect of measurement (first vs. second) as the within-subjects factor and group (poetry vs. description) as the between-subjects factor.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA conducted for fluency revealed an interaction [ F (1,127) = 11.56, p = 0.01, η 2 = 0.08]. Moreover, we found a main effect of Group [ F (1,127) = 12.35, p = 0.001, η 2 = 0.09]. The poem made people less fluent ( M = 7.41, SD = 0.71) than did the description ( M = 10.93, SD = 0.72). Pairwise comparisons showed that, in the second measurement, the poetry group’s fluency was significantly lower than the fluency of the description group [ t (127) = 4.61, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.84]. Two-tailed paired t -tests showed that the poetry group demonstrated a significant decrease in scores on the second measurement compared to the first measurement [ t (65) = 2.52, p = 0.014; Cohen’s d = 0.31]. Furthermore, the description group demonstrated better scores on the second measurement than on the first [ t (62) = 2.31, p = 0.024; Cohen’s d = 0.29]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure4 4 .

Mean fluency scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 2. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for flexibility also revealed an interaction [ F (1,127) = 3.92, p = 0.05, η 2 = 0.03]. Additionally, we found a main effect of group [ F (1,127) = 28.68, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.18]. The description triggered more flexible answers ( M = 4.11, SD = 0.17) than did the poem ( M = 3.45, SD = 0.17). We also found differences between the first and second measurement of flexibility in both the poetry [ t (65) = 5.64; p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.71] and description groups [ t (62) = 2.21, p = 0.031; Cohen’s d = 0.29]. Two-tailed paired t -tests showed that flexibility of both groups dropped in the second measurement when we compared its level with the first measurement. Furthermore, we found differences between the poetry and the description groups in the second measurement [ t (127) = 4.34, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.59]. Two t -tests showed that poetry reception resulted in lower flexibility scores than description reception in the second measurement. Extended data are presented in Figure ​ Figure5 5 .

Mean flexibility scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 2. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for originality yielded not significant interactions or main effects.

Next, we conducted linear regression analyses to determine whether the mean frequency of contact with poetry, fantasy (empathy factor), and/or NFC predicted DT scores in the baseline measurement. Analyses showed that frequent contact with poetry positively predicted all parameters of DT [fluency, F (1,127) = 21.49, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.15, b = 0.38; flexibility, F (1,127) = 23.73, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0,16, b = 0.39; and originality, F (1,127) = 17.94, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0,13, b = 0.35]. Further regression analyses yielded no significant associations between DT and fantasy, or DT and NFC.

We tried to explain the observed behavior—contact with poetry—in psychological terms. To elucidate the impacts of personality predictors on contact with poetry, we performed a single multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable was frequency of contact with poetry and the independent variables were fantasy and NFC. Results showed that the two-variables model was significant: F (2,127) = 10.67, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.15. Fantasy was a slightly stronger predictor of contact with poetry/passion ( b = 0.26) than was NFC ( b = 0.25). As predicted, we found no significant effects regarding these variables in the second measurement.

We found that contact with conventional, biographical poetry led to decreased indicators of DT. We also observed that people who received this type of poetry demonstrated less fluent and flexible thinking compared with those that read a description of the same information. These results provide support for our hypothesis that idea generation is less likely after reception of narrative-conventional poetry, and that people are less creative after reading this kind of text, when compared to reading a neutral text.

Kovecses (2010) stated that a large body of poetry is constructed in a very conventional way (i.e., based on conceptual, conventional metaphors that are often used in everyday language). Such conventional metaphors (e.g., life is a journey; death is dark), as a part of our cognitive system, allow us to adapt to reality, but do not necessarily stimulate creativity ( Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ). “The idea that metaphor constrains creativity might seem contrary to the widely held belief the metaphor somehow liberates the mind to engage in divergent thinking” ( Gibbs, 1994 , p. 7). Poets create novel, non-conventional poems through cognitive transformations: elaboration, extension, questioning, and combining ( Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ). Therefore, it seems that the biographical, closed, and conventional poetry is also insufficient to stimulate creativity.

Our research confirms that contact with poetry, understood as long-term individual interest (not one-time contact), is associated with readers’ creativity. Accordingly, the results showed that frequent contact with poetry could be explained by individual differences, specifically increased ability to become absorbed in the feelings of characters in a novel, as well as a stronger NFC. We can conclude that the features of the text, as well as the ability to actively perceive the poem, are key factors for appropriate poem reception. Noy and Noy-Sharav (2013) argue that the emotional message of art is always individually perceived. Silvia (2005) , who refers to the appraisal theory of aesthetic emotions, claims that the evaluation of art, and not art itself, arouses emotions. Understanding of a poem requires the ability to actively follow and immerse oneself in the poetry content, which is an essential dimension of empathy ( Davis, 1983 ). Experience suggests that absorption and poetry-elicited empathy should impact positively on the aesthetic evaluation of a poem ( Garrido and Schubert, 2011 ; Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ).

Furthermore, curiosity is a key component of emotional motivation ( Hoffman, 2006 ; Silvia, 2005 ). The recipient should be motivated to comprehend the cognitively demanding content of the poem, which is a determinant of NFC (i.e., an individual’s tendency to engage in, and enjoy, effortful cognitive endeavors; Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ). In general, we conclude that poetry reception favors pro-creativity states only under certain conditions, and that these conditions should be investigated in future studies.

General Discussion

Poets describe their emotions and observations, in the form of metaphorical statements, in an effort to better convey their vision of the world to the reader. In two studies, which were conducted using a test/re-test design, we controlled for the impact of two different types of poems, from two renowned artists, to determine what, if any, impact the reception of poetry has on idea generation. Szymborska’s narration is intellectually intriguing, with a surprising conclusion. Conversely, Gustafson’s narration is a poetic description of the music of a master. The first poet uses open metaphors, while the second conventional ones. We expected, and confirmed to a large extent, that perceiving novel metaphors, based on remote associations (i.e., open metaphors) would result in more creative responses to a problem, whereas reception of well-known metaphors, which reinforce the world view shared by the community (i.e., closed metaphors) would lead to less creative ideas. Even one-time contact with narrative, open poetry improved some aspects of DT. However, we did not observe changes in originality, which is the key indicator of DT efficiency. We attributed this effect to the author’s reasoning, aimed at one, surprising punch line.

Despite limitations in the selection of material, we conclude that poetry could be a useful tool for manipulating DT. Specifically, the results of the current studies suggest that poetry improves creativity if it contains open metaphors. However, reading conventional poetry may actually decrease idea generation. It is likely that the selection of poetic and control texts will remain an open problem for future studies on this topic.

We also accounted in these studies for individual differences that are critical for poetry reception. Frequent contact with poetry is associated with a slightly higher level of DT (compared to a lack of involvement in poetry) and could be explained by higher need for cognition (curiosity) and ability to empathize with poetry content.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although many of our hypotheses about the varied impact of poetry on generating ideas have been confirmed, it became clear that the simple division of metaphors into novel/open and well-known is not enough of a manipulation to affect DT. The narrative structure of the poem introduced limitations to the free and original interpretation of even the most distant, metaphorical associations. Therefore, future studies will seek pro-creative poetry in less structured and more emotional forms of poetic expression, specifically with the development of emotional themes that increase uncertainty and stimulate the reader’s imagination ( Kozielecki, 2007 ).

While we showed that the impact of poetry reading on creative thinking depends on the type of poetry, future studies should manipulate the type of poetry utilized in a single study. Specifically, there are more types of poetry (aside from non-conventional and conventional) that could impact the reader in diverse ways that we did not explore. According to Heiden (2014) , a fictionalized, narrative text can either address one’s understanding of life and a specific challenge found within the individual’s personal story (reference to “I”), or be an interpretation of events in the form of a story in general (referenced as “life at large”). Poetry that focuses on feelings, and disregards coherent narration, can be referred to as “cathartic poetry” (omitted in this research). The aim of cathartic poems is not to bring meaning closer, but rather to evoke the reader’s emotions. This type of poetry is an open task for readers, because everybody can comprehend it according to his or her own experience and understanding. It can support creativity more than narrative poetry used in the Study 1. Thus, it would be desirable to use narrative, cathartic, and conventional poems in one experimental model.

The current studies showed no increase in originality following poetry exposure. Therefore, it is important to conduct future studies to determine what kind of poetry, as well as what kind of cognitive abilities are necessary to achieve an increase in originality, which is the primary metric in DT.

It is also possible that the effects we observed could be due to the specific poems chosen, rather than the content relating to metaphor styles. This issue can be addressed only by choosing several wide-ranging poems, which differ in terms of both metaphorization style and structure. In addition to the well-structured poetry that we used in the current studies, we will choose poems in future research that are emotional and uncertain.

It is important to note that the control texts used in both of our experiments were not rated by the same judges who rated the poems in terms of affectivity and comprehensibility. Thus, we did not control the same possible factors that were neutralized by selecting and rating poems. Future studies should seek to ensure that all pieces used (both poetry and control) are rated. Additionally, the description of the poem’s content that was used as control text in the second study expresses a similar meaning to the poem, but without the use of metaphors. Without rating the content of both texts (poetry and its description), however, we cannot infer their similarity. To address this, a diverse range of texts included in the final collection should be rated by judges in the same manner as poems, both for affectivity and comprehensibility. In this way, the collection would result in several poems, restricted to the best examples of the three different metaphor styles (i.e., narrative, conventional, and cathartic). Further, the personality determinants of poetry receiving in judges and the receivers should be also be controlled.

In the current studies, creativity was more related to general problem solving than production of creative works (e.g., poetry, fictional stories). In future studies, we intend to check the influence of specific types of poetry reading on creating one’s own poems or prose samples. Future research should also explore the underlying mechanism behind how poetry influences creativity. Considering factors like emotions that are a consequence of contact with a poem, as well as individual differences in NFC and empathy, would allow us to construct a model to better describe the impact of poetry on the human mind. Furthermore, we failed to target specific audiences with specific types of poetry, which future studies should attempt. Finally, since the sample comprised high school students it would be difficult to extrapolate the results to a wider population.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Council of SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Sopot, Poland. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and from the parents of all minors.

Author Contributions

MO and AK equally contributed to the study concept and design. Additionally, MO collected the data, developed the line of argumentation, performed the data analyses, and developed a poetry classification. MO and AK approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer PC and handling Editor declared their shared affiliation at time of review.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank students Katarzyna Rajska, Oskar Wójcik, Katarzyna Gałasińska-Grygorczuk, and Angelika Krause for their help with data collection and creativity rating. We also thank Radosław Sterczynski for his help designing procedures. We would like to thank Editage ( www.editage.com ) for English language editing.

Funding. The preparation of this paper was supported by a grant from National Science Centre, Poland No. 2016/21/N/HS6/2868 awarded to MO.

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What is Problem Solving? (Steps, Techniques, Examples)

By Status.net Editorial Team on May 7, 2023 — 5 minutes to read

What Is Problem Solving?

Definition and importance.

Problem solving is the process of finding solutions to obstacles or challenges you encounter in your life or work. It is a crucial skill that allows you to tackle complex situations, adapt to changes, and overcome difficulties with ease. Mastering this ability will contribute to both your personal and professional growth, leading to more successful outcomes and better decision-making.

Problem-Solving Steps

The problem-solving process typically includes the following steps:

• Identify the issue : Recognize the problem that needs to be solved.
• Analyze the situation : Examine the issue in depth, gather all relevant information, and consider any limitations or constraints that may be present.
• Generate potential solutions : Brainstorm a list of possible solutions to the issue, without immediately judging or evaluating them.
• Evaluate options : Weigh the pros and cons of each potential solution, considering factors such as feasibility, effectiveness, and potential risks.
• Select the best solution : Choose the option that best addresses the problem and aligns with your objectives.
• Implement the solution : Put the selected solution into action and monitor the results to ensure it resolves the issue.
• Review and learn : Reflect on the problem-solving process, identify any improvements or adjustments that can be made, and apply these learnings to future situations.

Defining the Problem

To start tackling a problem, first, identify and understand it. Analyzing the issue thoroughly helps to clarify its scope and nature. Ask questions to gather information and consider the problem from various angles. Some strategies to define the problem include:

• Brainstorming with others
• Asking the 5 Ws and 1 H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How)
• Analyzing cause and effect
• Creating a problem statement

Generating Solutions

Once the problem is clearly understood, brainstorm possible solutions. Think creatively and keep an open mind, as well as considering lessons from past experiences. Consider:

• Creating a list of potential ideas to solve the problem
• Grouping and categorizing similar solutions
• Prioritizing potential solutions based on feasibility, cost, and resources required
• Involving others to share diverse opinions and inputs

Evaluating and Selecting Solutions

Evaluate each potential solution, weighing its pros and cons. To facilitate decision-making, use techniques such as:

• SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Decision-making matrices
• Pros and cons lists
• Risk assessments

After evaluating, choose the most suitable solution based on effectiveness, cost, and time constraints.

Implementing and Monitoring the Solution

Implement the chosen solution and monitor its progress. Key actions include:

• Communicating the solution to relevant parties
• Setting timelines and milestones
• Assigning tasks and responsibilities
• Monitoring the solution and making adjustments as necessary
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the solution after implementation

Utilize feedback from stakeholders and consider potential improvements. Remember that problem-solving is an ongoing process that can always be refined and enhanced.

Problem-Solving Techniques

During each step, you may find it helpful to utilize various problem-solving techniques, such as:

• Brainstorming : A free-flowing, open-minded session where ideas are generated and listed without judgment, to encourage creativity and innovative thinking.
• Root cause analysis : A method that explores the underlying causes of a problem to find the most effective solution rather than addressing superficial symptoms.
• SWOT analysis : A tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a problem or decision, providing a comprehensive view of the situation.
• Mind mapping : A visual technique that uses diagrams to organize and connect ideas, helping to identify patterns, relationships, and possible solutions.

Brainstorming

When facing a problem, start by conducting a brainstorming session. Gather your team and encourage an open discussion where everyone contributes ideas, no matter how outlandish they may seem. This helps you:

• Generate a diverse range of solutions
• Encourage all team members to participate
• Foster creative thinking

When brainstorming, remember to:

• Reserve judgment until the session is over
• Encourage wild ideas
• Combine and improve upon ideas

Root Cause Analysis

For effective problem-solving, identifying the root cause of the issue at hand is crucial. Try these methods:

• 5 Whys : Ask “why” five times to get to the underlying cause.
• Fishbone Diagram : Create a diagram representing the problem and break it down into categories of potential causes.
• Pareto Analysis : Determine the few most significant causes underlying the majority of problems.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis helps you examine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to your problem. To perform a SWOT analysis:

• List your problem’s strengths, such as relevant resources or strong partnerships.
• Identify its weaknesses, such as knowledge gaps or limited resources.
• Explore opportunities, like trends or new technologies, that could help solve the problem.
• Recognize potential threats, like competition or regulatory barriers.

SWOT analysis aids in understanding the internal and external factors affecting the problem, which can help guide your solution.

Mind Mapping

A mind map is a visual representation of your problem and potential solutions. It enables you to organize information in a structured and intuitive manner. To create a mind map:

• Write the problem in the center of a blank page.
• Draw branches from the central problem to related sub-problems or contributing factors.
• Add more branches to represent potential solutions or further ideas.

Mind mapping allows you to visually see connections between ideas and promotes creativity in problem-solving.

Examples of Problem Solving in Various Contexts

In the business world, you might encounter problems related to finances, operations, or communication. Applying problem-solving skills in these situations could look like:

• Identifying areas of improvement in your company’s financial performance and implementing cost-saving measures
• Resolving internal conflicts among team members by listening and understanding different perspectives, then proposing and negotiating solutions
• Streamlining a process for better productivity by removing redundancies, automating tasks, or re-allocating resources

In educational contexts, problem-solving can be seen in various aspects, such as:

• Addressing a gap in students’ understanding by employing diverse teaching methods to cater to different learning styles
• Developing a strategy for successful time management to balance academic responsibilities and extracurricular activities
• Seeking resources and support to provide equal opportunities for learners with special needs or disabilities

Everyday life is full of challenges that require problem-solving skills. Some examples include:

• Overcoming a personal obstacle, such as improving your fitness level, by establishing achievable goals, measuring progress, and adjusting your approach accordingly
• Navigating a new environment or city by researching your surroundings, asking for directions, or using technology like GPS to guide you
• Dealing with a sudden change, like a change in your work schedule, by assessing the situation, identifying potential impacts, and adapting your plans to accommodate the change.
• How to Resolve Employee Conflict at Work [Steps, Tips, Examples]
• How to Write Inspiring Core Values? 5 Steps with Examples
• 30 Employee Feedback Examples (Positive & Negative)

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Visual poetry and real context situations in mathematical problem posing and solving: a study of the affective impact.

1. Introduction

• Identify to what extent the context of the situation (close real, distant real, or evoked through a visual poem) affects performance when posing and solving problems.
• Study how the context of the situation affects different aspects linked to motivation in approaching and solving problems.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1. problem posing and problem solving, 2.2. affect and mathematical activity.

• Interest is defined as a psychological state that describes a relationship of positive affect between an individual and an object [ 22 ]. Research carried out by scholars such as Schiefele, Krapp, and Winteler [ 23 ] confirms that, especially in mathematics, certain attitudinal aspects such as interest are important in educational processes. Rellensmann and Schukajlow [ 6 ] differentiate between two types of interest: individual interest and situational interest. Individual interest is relatively long-lasting, while situational interest is characteristic of a specific situation; it appears if a certain problem captures the student’s attention. Because it is possible to move from situational interest to individual interest, it is crucial to study the interest generated by the different mathematical activities and, in particular, the degree of interest shown by students depending on the mathematical activity developed.
• Value characterizes the importance that we perceive is attached to objects, content, and actions [ 24 ]. The value attributed to a certain activity plays an important role in motivation. In this sense, the motivation of students to learn can be related to the importance they attribute to learning and its objects [ 25 ]. Thus, value can be related to the degree of importance that a student assigns to a certain activity. If a person does not value an activity, it is unlikely that he or she will make an effort to carry it out, even if they feel capable of doing it [ 26 ]. It is important to keep in mind that the characteristics of the activity, its relevance or perceived usefulness, may be the reasons why a student values or does not value such activity [ 27 ].
• Enjoyment is one of the most frequent positive emotions in the classroom. According to the control-value theory of achievement emotions [ 28 ], enjoyment is a positive emotion that can influence students to commit to the activity performed. It has been proven that student enjoyment is related to effort and performance [ 29 ]. In this way, enjoyment can not only accompany the development of interest, but can also positively influence it.
• Boredom, like enjoyment, is an emotion that can be related to learning. Indeed, it is one of the deactivating negative emotions that is reported more frequently along with anxiety, anger, frustration, hopelessness, and shame [ 30 ]. According to many studies, boredom is the result of lack of control over actions [ 28 ] and it has been found to be negatively related to performance in mathematics. Moreover, it is worth highlighting that the feeling of boredom is not simply the result of the lack of interest or enjoyment. If students are not interested in Math or do not enjoy Math classes, they can feel many different negative emotions such as anger or frustration, but not always boredom. Due to their different characteristics and consequences, enjoyment and boredom are distinct emotions that were found to be negatively correlated [ 31 ]. However, enjoyment and boredom are not opposites. As Pekrun et al. [ 32 ] point out, the lack of enjoyment does not necessarily imply the presence of boredom.

2.3. Multimodal Representation

2.4. visual poetry, 3. research questions and expectations in the present study.

• How does the context of the initial situation influence the formulation of problems? (a) Are students capable of posing mathematical problems from different contextualized situations? (b) How and to what extent does the type of situation generated by posing a problem affect the four affective factors analyzed (enjoyment, boredom, value, and interest)?
• How does the context of the initial situation influence problem solving? (a) Is there an influence of the context of the situation on performance in the resolution process? (b) How and to what extent does the type of situation generated by the resolution of a problem affect the four affective factors analyzed (enjoyment, boredom, value, and interest)?

4. Methodology

4.1. sample, 4.2. experience design, 4.2.1. phase 1: problem posing.

• To measure the degree of “enjoyment” they are asked to rate the level according to the statement: “I enjoyed posing a problem based on this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.755).
• To obtain information on the degree of boredom, they are asked to rate the degree according to the statement: “I found it boring to try to pose a problem from this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.831).
• To obtain information on the interest generated by each of the three activities consisting of posing a problem, they are asked on the degree of agreement with the statement: “I found it interesting to think of a problem statement based on this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.821).
• Finally, we are interested in knowing to what extent they value the importance of posing problems from a given context. For this, we ask them the degree of agreement with the statement: “I think it is important to be able to pose problems from situations like this one” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.86).

4.2.2. Phase 2: Problem Solving

• To measure the degree of “enjoyment” they are asked to rate the level according to the statement “I enjoyed solving a problem based on this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.703).
• To obtain information on the degree of boredom, they are asked to rate the degree according to the statement “I found it boring trying to solve a problem based on this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.779).
• To obtain information on the interest generated by each of the three activities consisting of posing a problem, they are asked to rate the degree of agreement with the statement “I found it interesting to solve a problem based on this situation” (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.831).
• Finally, we are interested in knowing to what extent they value the importance of posing problems from a given context. To do this, we ask for the degree of agreement with the statement “I think it is important to be able to solve problems based on situations like this one.” The Cronbach’s alpha value for this item is slightly below 0.7 (0.635). This is a value which, in Taber’s study [ 56 ] on the use of this statistic in educational science work, is usually taken as satisfactory (p. 1279). However, as this author pointed out, it is convenient to reflect on the reason for this value: it is certainly complex for the participants in this study (pre-service teachers) to assess the degree of importance of a certain activity related to teaching. Indeed, in the other three items, they are asked to value aspects that are directly related to them (enjoyment, boredom, or interest in solving a task), while in this last item they are asked to value an aspect that goes beyond this, and which requires an epistemological reflection: the importance, understood as educational value, of solving a specific type of mathematics problem.

4.3. Data Analysis

4.3.1. the problems students posed, 4.3.2. students’ solution to provided problems, 5.1. influence of context in problem posing, 5.1.1. problem posing performance, 5.1.2. influence of affective factors in problem posing, 5.2. influence of context in problem solving, 5.2.1. problem solving performance, 5.2.2. influence of affective factors in problem solving, 6. discussion, 6.1. performance of pre-service teachers in posing and solving problems, 6.2. influence of the context in affective aspects: study of motivation, 7. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Bataller, A.; Ferrando, I.; Reyes-Torres, A. Visual Poetry and Real Context Situations in Mathematical Problem Posing and Solving: A Study of the Affective Impact. Mathematics 2022 , 10 , 1647. https://doi.org/10.3390/math10101647

Bataller A, Ferrando I, Reyes-Torres A. Visual Poetry and Real Context Situations in Mathematical Problem Posing and Solving: A Study of the Affective Impact. Mathematics . 2022; 10(10):1647. https://doi.org/10.3390/math10101647

Bataller, Alexandre, Irene Ferrando, and Agustín Reyes-Torres. 2022. "Visual Poetry and Real Context Situations in Mathematical Problem Posing and Solving: A Study of the Affective Impact" Mathematics 10, no. 10: 1647. https://doi.org/10.3390/math10101647

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What is decision making?

Decisions, decisions. When was the last time you struggled with a choice? Maybe it was this morning, when you decided to hit the snooze button—again. Perhaps it was at a restaurant, with a miles-long menu and the server standing over you. Or maybe it was when you left your closet in a shambles after trying on seven different outfits before a big presentation. Often, making a decision—even a seemingly simple one—can be difficult. And people will go to great lengths—and pay serious sums of money—to avoid having to make a choice. The expensive tasting menu at the restaurant, for example. Or limiting your closet choices to black turtlenecks, à la Steve Jobs.

Get to know and directly engage with senior McKinsey experts on decision making

Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New Jersey office, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo  is McKinsey’s global director of advancing women executives and is based in the New York office, Frithjof Lund is a senior partner in the Oslo office, and Leigh Weiss is a senior adviser in the Boston office.

If you’ve ever wrestled with a decision at work, you’re definitely not alone. According to McKinsey research, executives spend a significant portion of their time— nearly 40 percent , on average—making decisions. Worse, they believe most of that time is poorly used. People struggle with decisions so much so that we actually get exhausted from having to decide too much, a phenomenon called decision fatigue.

But decision fatigue isn’t the only cost of ineffective decision making. According to a McKinsey survey of more than 1,200 global business leaders, inefficient decision making costs a typical Fortune 500 company 530,000 days  of managers’ time each year, equivalent to about $250 million in annual wages. That’s a lot of turtlenecks.

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Learn more about our People & Organizational Performance Practice .

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Business leaders today have access to more sophisticated data than ever before. But it hasn’t necessarily made decision making any easier. For one thing, organizational dynamics—such as unclear roles, overreliance on consensus, and death by committee—can get in the way of straightforward decision making. And more data often means more decisions to be taken, which can become too much for one person, team, or department. This can make it more difficult for leaders to cleanly delegate, which in turn can lead to a decline in productivity.

Leaders are growing increasingly frustrated with broken decision-making processes, slow deliberations, and uneven decision-making outcomes. Fewer than half  of the 1,200 respondents of a McKinsey survey report that decisions are timely, and 61 percent say that at least half the time they spend making decisions is ineffective.

What’s the solution? According to McKinsey research, effective solutions center around categorizing decision types and organizing different processes to support each type. Further, each decision category should be assigned its own practice—stimulating debate, for example, or empowering employees—to yield improvements in effectiveness.

Here are the three decision categories  that matter most to senior leaders, and the standout practice that makes the biggest difference for each type of decision.

• Big-bet decisions are infrequent but high risk, such as acquisitions. These decisions carry the potential to shape the future of the company, and as a result are generally made by top leaders and the board. Spurring productive debate by assigning someone to argue the case for and against a potential decision can improve big-bet decision making.
• Cross-cutting decisions, such as pricing, can be frequent and high risk. These are usually made by business unit heads, in cross-functional forums as part of a collaborative process. These types of decisions can be improved by doubling down on process refinement. The ideal process should be one that helps clarify objectives, measures, and targets.
• Delegated decisions are frequent but low risk and are handled by an individual or working team with some input from others. Delegated decision making can be improved by ensuring that the responsibility for the decision is firmly in the hands of those closest to the work. This approach also enhances engagement and accountability.

In addition, business leaders can take the following four actions to help sustain rapid decision making :

• Focus on the game-changing decisions, ones that will help an organization create value and serve its purpose.
• Convene only necessary meetings, and eliminate lengthy reports. Turn unnecessary meetings into emails, and watch productivity bloom. For necessary meetings, provide short, well-prepared prereads to aid in decision making.
• Clarify the roles of decision makers and other voices. Who has a vote, and who has a voice?
• Push decision-making authority to the front line—and tolerate mistakes.

Introducing McKinsey Explainers : Direct answers to complex questions

How can business leaders effectively delegate decision making.

Business is more complex and dynamic than ever, meaning business leaders are faced with needing to make more decisions in less time. Decision making takes up an inordinate amount of management’s time—up to 70 percent for some executives—which leads to inefficiencies and opportunity costs.

As discussed above, organizations should treat different types of decisions differently . Decisions should be classified  according to their frequency, risk, and importance. Delegated decisions are the most mysterious for many organizations: they are the most frequent, and yet the least understood. Only about a quarter of survey respondents  report that their organizations make high-quality and speedy delegated decisions. And yet delegated decisions, because they happen so often, can have a big impact on organizational culture.

The key to better delegated decisions is to empower employees by giving them the authority and confidence to act. That means not simply telling employees which decisions they can or can’t make; it means giving employees the tools they need to make high-quality decisions and the right level of guidance as they do so.

Here’s how to support delegation and employee empowerment:

• Ensure that your organization has a well-defined, universally understood strategy. When the strategic intent of an organization is clear, empowerment is much easier because it allows teams to pull in the same direction.
• Clearly define roles and responsibilities. At the foundation of all empowerment efforts is a clear understanding of who is responsible for what, including who has input and who doesn’t.
• Invest in capability building (and coaching) up front. To help managers spend meaningful coaching time, organizations should also invest in managers’ leadership skills.
• Build an empowerment-oriented culture. Leaders should role model mindsets that promote empowerment, and managers should build the coaching skills they want to see. Managers and employees, in particular, will need to get comfortable with failure as a necessary step to success.
• Decide when to get involved. Managers should spend effort up front to decide what is worth their focused attention. They should know when it’s appropriate to provide close guidance and when not to.

How can you guard against bias in decision making?

Cognitive bias is real. We all fall prey, no matter how we try to guard ourselves against it. And cognitive and organizational bias undermines good decision making, whether you’re choosing what to have for lunch or whether to put in a bid to acquire another company.

Here are some of the most common cognitive biases and strategies for how to avoid them:

• Confirmation bias. Often, when we already believe something, our minds seek out information to support that belief—whether or not it is actually true. Confirmation bias  involves overweighting evidence that supports our belief, underweighting evidence against our belief, or even failing to search impartially for evidence in the first place. Confirmation bias is one of the most common traps organizational decision makers fall into. One famous—and painful—example of confirmation bias is when Blockbuster passed up the opportunity  to buy a fledgling Netflix for $50 million in 2000. (Actually, that’s putting it politely. Netflix executives remember being “laughed out” of Blockbuster’s offices.) Fresh off the dot-com bubble burst of 2000, Blockbuster executives likely concluded that Netflix had approached them out of desperation—not that Netflix actually had a baby unicorn on its hands.
• Herd mentality. First observed by Charles Mackay in his 1841 study of crowd psychology, herd mentality happens when information that’s available to the group is determined to be more useful than privately held knowledge. Individuals buy into this bias because there’s safety in the herd. But ignoring competing viewpoints might ultimately be costly. To counter this, try a teardown exercise , wherein two teams use scenarios, advanced analytics, and role-playing to identify how a herd might react to a decision, and to ensure they can refute public perceptions.
• Sunk-cost fallacy. Executives frequently hold onto underperforming business units or projects because of emotional or legacy attachment . Equally, business leaders hate shutting projects down . This, researchers say, is due to the ingrained belief that if everyone works hard enough, anything can be turned into gold. McKinsey research indicates two techniques for understanding when to hold on and when to let go. First, change the burden of proof from why an asset should be cut to why it should be retained. Next, categorize business investments according to whether they should be grown, maintained, or disposed of—and follow clearly differentiated investment rules  for each group.
• Ignoring unpleasant information. Researchers call this the “ostrich effect”—when people figuratively bury their heads in the sand , ignoring information that will make their lives more difficult. One study, for example, found that investors were more likely to check the value of their portfolios when the markets overall were rising, and less likely to do so when the markets were flat or falling. One way to help get around this is to engage in a readout process, where individuals or teams summarize discussions as they happen. This increases the likelihood that everyone leaves a meeting with the same understanding of what was said.
• Halo effect. Important personal and professional choices are frequently affected by people’s tendency to make specific judgments based on general impressions . Humans are tempted to use simple mental frames to understand complicated ideas, which means we frequently draw conclusions faster than we should. The halo effect is particularly common in hiring decisions. To avoid this bias, structured interviews can help mitigate the essentializing tendency. When candidates are measured against indicators, intuition is less likely to play a role.

For more common biases and how to beat them, check out McKinsey’s Bias Busters Collection .

Learn more about Strategy & Corporate Finance consulting  at McKinsey—and check out job opportunities related to decision making if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Bias busters: When the crowd isn’t necessarily wise ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 23, 2022, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo , Tim Koller , and Derek Schatz
• “ Boards and decision making ,” April 8, 2021, Aaron De Smet , Frithjof Lund , Suzanne Nimocks, and Leigh Weiss
• “ To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings ,” November 9, 2020, Aaron De Smet , Simon London, and Leigh Weiss
• “ Reimagine decision making to improve speed and quality ,” September 14, 2020, Julie Hughes , J. R. Maxwell , and Leigh Weiss
• “ For smarter decisions, empower your employees ,” September 9, 2020, Aaron De Smet , Caitlin Hewes, and Leigh Weiss
• “ Bias busters: Lifting your head from the sand ,” McKinsey Quarterly , August 18, 2020, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo
• “ Decision making in uncertain times ,” March 24, 2020, Andrea Alexander, Aaron De Smet , and Leigh Weiss
• “ Bias busters: Avoiding snap judgments ,” McKinsey Quarterly , November 6, 2019, Tim Koller , Dan Lovallo, and Phil Rosenzweig
• “ Three keys to faster, better decisions ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 1, 2019, Aaron De Smet , Gregor Jost , and Leigh Weiss
• “ Decision making in the age of urgency ,” April 30, 2019, Iskandar Aminov, Aaron De Smet , Gregor Jost , and David Mendelsohn
• “ Bias busters: Pruning projects proactively ,” McKinsey Quarterly , February 6, 2019, Tim Koller , Dan Lovallo, and Zane Williams
• “ Decision making in your organization: Cutting through the clutter ,” McKinsey Quarterly , January 16, 2018, Aaron De Smet , Simon London, and Leigh Weiss
• “ Untangling your organization’s decision making ,” McKinsey Quarterly , June 21, 2017, Aaron De Smet , Gerald Lackey, and Leigh Weiss
• “ Are you ready to decide? ,” McKinsey Quarterly , April 1, 2015, Philip Meissner, Olivier Sibony, and Torsten Wulf.

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