Verse

In this chapter I look at verse by drawing on hypotheses about the psychology of language processing, and how verse might be processed in a distinctive way (for example, how the verse line might have a distinctive status in working memory). I look at how the added forms such as metre and rhyme create markedness, and how this might force increased interpretive efforts, and how form itself can be the content of interpretations. I will suggest that verse can be seen as a device for manipulating processing effort, making it easier in some ways, more difficult in others, with interpretive and emotional effects.