30 November 2025. Today, the essay Contemporary Poetry Studies and Cognition by Helena Van Praet was published in Cahier voor Literatuurwetenschap Volume 16 (2025), by the Flemish Association for General and Comparative Literature Studies, Ghent University, Belgium. The full article is available here.
In her new article, Van Praet writes:
“This essay offers a broad perspective on poetry as both a carrier and a producer of cognition (as knowledge). However, the deep connection between poetry and cognition extends beyond this cultural-historical association. The following sections briefly discuss three common approaches to poetry and cognition: poetry as a world, poetry as an exploration of cognition, and poetry as a linguistic expression of human conceptual thinking. These three perspectives will be illustrated through the poem ‘[tovenaar]’ by Rozalie Hirs from her third collection [Speling] (2005).” (p.3)
“In Rozalie Hirs’ poem ‘[tovenaar]’ (19), a meta-reflective approach is taken toward the construction of poetic worlds. The addressed ‘you’ is a ‘magician’ compared to a ‘lantern’ that brings ‘glass figures’ to life through ‘light’. This ‘you’ literally (visually) and figuratively creates a perspective or ‘eye frame’ with the lyrical subject at its center: ‘everything [was] lifted from the image / exactly where you saw me.’ By focusing the ‘lens’ and choosing the lyrical ‘I,’ the ‘you’ essentially ‘comes home,’ and their intersubjective world takes shape. Poetic and shared human worlds are intricately woven together in this poem.” (p.5)
“Also in Hirs’ ‘[tovenaar]’ we find such an exploration of human cognition. The speaker immediately poses the question: ‘But what is true, my world / and how true is where yours / was?’ Our thinking is not neutral, but highly subjective and dependent on a ‘fine body.’ The idea that the world could appear differently, with this seeing always being conceptual in nature, is emphasized in this poem through numerous references to the human gaze, such as ‘the coloring book,’ ‘the light,’ ‘lantern,’ ‘your eye frame,’ ‘saw,’ ‘the lens,’ and ‘your retina.’ The prototypical link between seeing and knowing is quickly established: this poem calls into question the infallibility of our (conceptual) perception.” (p.6)
“When we approach Hirs’ poem ‘[tovenaar]’ from a cognitive-linguistic perspective, we can observe several references to the body, which anchor the language in a specific corporeal experience. These references not only involve sight, as we’ve discussed, but also touch, as indicated by phrases such as ‘when I took the coloring book’ and ‘cold ice flower.’ Moreover, the short poem uses various active verbs that (possibly) engage our own bodily experiences, fostering involvement: take, blow, grasp. Finally, the use of deixis in the poem stands out: it is structured as a typical lyrical interplay between ‘you’ and ‘I’ through personal and possessive pronouns.” (p.7)
Van Praet, H. (2025). Contemporary Poetry Studies and Cognition. Cahier Voor Literatuurwetenschap, 16. https://doi.org/10.62956/p9b0qn40 (Original work published 2025)
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[tovenaar]
Maar wat is waar, mijn wereld,
en hoe waar is waar de jouwe
was? Toen ik de kleurplaat nam,
het licht haar glasfiguren
leven in zag blazen, was jij
tovenaar, lantaarn. Toen ik als
koude ijsbloem in je oograam
lag, was alles uit het beeld gelicht
juist waar je me zag. Gegrift het
fijne lichaam – door de lens op
scherp, je netvlies thuisgebracht.
—Rozalie Hirs, [Speling] (Querido, 2005)