Given the question "Which of the following is Dr Stewart's opinion about treating people under stress?" and the answer "They don't need a doctor's advice on which poems to read.", write a conversation that might have happened.


W: We all know that poetry is not everyone's cup of tea. But according to Dr James Stewart.

M: Hello!

W: Hello! If you are suffering from anxiety or depression, poetry may be the solution to your problems. Dr Stewart, how does poetry help?

M: Em, OK! Look, let me give you an example. A patient came into our clinic last month. He was a middle-aged businessmen, and he was feeling, well, like most middle-aged businessmen, really stressed and with his life out of control. He talked to me about it, and, well, I was convinced that medication just wouldn't help him. Then I read him a poem called Leisure by WHDavis. Do you know the one? It begins, er...

W: I do, yes.

M: What is this life, er, so full of. It is so or if...

W: I think it's if.

M: If full of care, that's it, yes. We have no time to stand and stare. Well, you know the one. The next time he came to see me, he told me that, well, it was a sort of turning point for him. The poem made him think about the quality of his life and the need to find a balance between his work and his social life. Er, you see, because the idea was expressed poetically, he felt that he could identify with it, and actually feel the message in a way that he wouldn't if he simply discussed it with me. And we just had the usual kind of conversation about it.

W: Yes, I see.

M: You see, reading poetry to patients seems to make them calmer. Encouraging them to write it has an even more dramatic effect, actually. Era, there.., there are something about the process of expressing confused thoughts and feelings and emotions in writing that actually helps people or suffering from stress and anxiety. This happens especially if the words are written in a poetical way with a sense of rhythm rather than in prose, you see. Er, now, for a long time, we've been asking patients to write diaries to put their feelings into words. But it turns out that writing poetry seems to work much better for many patients.

W: Right, and have you found that other doctors and therapists have made the same...