The poet Billy Collins theorized that babies and children respond quickly to poetry because in utero they are conditioned to the beat of their mother's heart in iambic meter. Nursery rhymes and children's songs capitalize on love of rhythmn. Collins said, "life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us." (Washington Post "Pearls before Breakfast" April 8 2007)
Aung San Suu Kyi spent 23 years as a political prisoner under house arrest in Burma. She says she developed her inner resources by "listening to BBC radio, practicing the piano, learning Japanese and . . .reading Tennyson. I became fonder of poetry than prose". (London Financial Times January 29/30 2011)
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