The Emotions of Apprentice Poets

Abstract

Nineteen college poets completed a twenty-item check list that asked them how they felt about writing in general as well as before, at a pause, and after seven poetry writing sessions. The intensity with which they experienced positive, negative passive, and negative active emotions was assessed as was the frequency with which those emotions were experienced when writing in general. Results indicated that the positive emotions intensified during writing. Instructor-rated skilled poets experienced more positive emotions than their unskilled counterparts. But poets rating themselves as unskilled felt both more positive and negative active when writing than their skilled counterparts. Student poets unaccustomed to writing on their own experienced more intense emotions across the writing episodes than those with more years. Free writing was associated with more intense anxiety than structured poetry exercises. The rank orders of the emotion items suggested more emotional stability for poetry generated in an academic setting than generated at home.