Thus, I began to explore the poetry shelves in the old bookshops of the United Kingdom, coming across the great elegies such as those of Gray, Milton ( Lycidas being one of those struggled with at school, as was Shelley's Adonais-could it be these early readings sowed the seed of current interest after all?), Rilke and Whitman. In my view, then, there is also scientific value in the underlying messages conveyed by the poets, in their representations of grief and even-turning to scientific language-as sources of hypotheses (giving us propositions that we can test in carefully controlled, empirical research studies). I would even go so far as to say that the best of our poets reveal the living, dynamic force that we know to be characteristic of grief but find so hard to put into words. So in time, I came to appreciate that the exquisite, succinct poetic renderings conveyed a depth of emotional experience untapped in scientific accounts. In contrast to the scientific sources, the literary ones I came across in exploring the literature certainly did seem to convey the harrowing nature of grief and grieving: What better describes the broken-hearted reaction-the scientifically evidenced notion that one can die of grief following the loss of a loved person-than the epitaph (by Sir Henry Wotton, on the death of Sir Albert Morton's wife): He first deceased, She for a little tried, To live without him, Liked it not and died. Nevertheless, as the Chinese poet, Li Ch'ing Chao (1084–1151) asked: How can the one word “sorrow” paint what sorrow is? Nor was it necessarily the basic aim to be vivid-the intention of the scientific accounts was rather to inventorize the range of responses and document their incidence and prevalence among the bereaved. Although descriptively comprehensive and ostensibly accurate (they tallied quite well with each other), none of the existing accounts seemed to capture the essence of emotional reactions to bereavement in any profound, soul-moving manner. ![]() We were busy writing our monograph Bereavement and Health ( Stroebe & Stroebe, 1987), and I was reviewing the research literature for the section examining phenomena and manifestations associated with grief and grieving. It was not until much later, early in my career as a bereavement researcher, that my eyes were opened to the value of poetic renditions. I struggled with its dominant presence in the final-year English Literature curriculum at high school many years ago, grappling to remember lines and understand meanings, longing just to be able to read the assigned classic books. I would like to say up front, in giving a little historical background to my fascination: In general, poetry was never a strong interest of mine. So my purpose in writing this article is not to make a scientifically well-grounded argument but rather to give a personal account of how, over the years, I have come to find poetry helpful to me as a researcher, to illustrate how it has added to my knowledge about the nature of grief.The Background to My Preoccupation With Grief Poetry ![]() 1 However, less is known about the impact of poetry on our understanding of grief, either as bereaved persons trying to grasp what grief is all about or as researchers trying to determine what the grief experience encompasses: Can the eloquence of poetry help us-lay persons and professionals-to actually comprehend grief? There is no scientific evidence of which I am aware that either confirms or disconfirms such a proposition (indeed such a study might be difficult to conduct). Bereavement researchers have asked related questions: Does expressing one's own feelings-sharing one's grief in written or spoken form-actually help, or is the opposite the case, does it make matters worse to write or talk about grief? Are the consequences of holding in-or failing to hold in-one's emotions so dire that one can actually die of grief? Headway has been made in finding answers to these questions, particularly toward unravelling the impact of disclosure of grief ( Pennebaker, Zech, & Rimé, 2001 Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2005). The poets not only put grief into eloquent words for us but they also write ardently-as above-of the impact of giving words to grief. Light griefs can speak great ones are dumb ![]() It will take time, and the years will go by.ĭouglas Dunn, on his wife's death, from the poem December in Elegies (1995) It will do you good, this work of your grief. No, don't stop writing your grievous poetry. Grief, keep within and scorn to show but tears,ĭisdain to sigh, for so can slender cares, The grief that does not speak whispers the o'er fraught heart and bids it break.
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