The present study combines literary theory and cognitive psychology to empirically
explore some cognitive and emotional facets of poetry reading, exemplified by the
reading of three Shakespeare sonnets. Specifically, predictions generated combining
quantitative textual analysis according to the Neurocognitive Poetics model with qualitative
textual analysis based on the Foregrounding assessment Matrix of sonnets no. 27, 60
and 66 are empirically tested by analyzing 45 subjects' ratings of the three sonnets.
Reflecting the differences in foregrounding potential of the three sonnets found in
the textual analysis, we expected to find different reader responses, accordingly.
Our dependent variables are well-established categories of emotional evaluation (e.g.
valence and arousal) and cognitive, affective and aesthetic aspects of readers' responses
(e.g. liking and understanding) as well as less common ones (e.g. wonder, delight
and mental images). The statistical analyses suggest that the type of foregrounding
is more important than the number of foregrounded elements. This finding motivated
further qualitative exploration of reader responses to open questions regarding mental
images and perceived feelings. Comparing the free recall data about the feelings perceived
in the sonnets with the ratings data about Valence and Arousal indicated that only
the former one reflects a clear distinction between all three sonnets, whereas the
readers' overall evaluations did not sustain this variety of feelings. Multi-method,
interdisciplinary research of this kind contributes to improving our understanding
of the potentially unique mechanisms involved in poetry reception, and to forming
more precise hypotheses for future experimental studies using, for example, eye tracking.
