Metered Poetry, the Brain, and Time

Abstract

This essay brings together an old subject, a new body of knowledge, and a scientific paradigm, which have not previously been associated with one another. The subject is poetic meter, a universal human activity, which, despite its universality and obvious importance in most human cultures, has received very little attention from humanists, except for the studies of a few literary prosodists, and virtually none at all from science. The new body of knowledge derives from the findings of the intense study of the human brain that has taken place within the last few decades. The new scientific paradigm has been developed by the International Society for the Study of Time. Its major postulates are that: 1. An understanding of time is fundamental to an understanding of the real world. 2. Time is not simple, but composite. 3. Time is a hierarchy of increasingly complex temporalities. 4. The more complex temporalities evolved as a part of the general evolution of the universe, and, in a sense, the evolution of time constitutes the evolution of the universe. 5. The hierarchical character of time as we know it reflects and embodies the various stages of its evolution. 1 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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