Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 102

MODERN AGE

FALL 2015

Though grounded in a venerable aesthetic tradition that carries
its own sufficient authority, modern neurophysiology has delivered surprising evidence of the poetic pleasures unique to metrical poetry. As it turns out, listening to metrical verse triggers the
release of "an endorphin payload"; listening to free verse does
not. As poet Brad Leithauser remarks, "Something innate within
the matrix of the human body-some complex concatenation
of heartbeat, respiration, and, especially, synaptic firings within
and between the two hemispheres-contrives to impose on any
sort of poetry demands that run deeper than the language of [its]
composition." Leithauser thus plausibly reasons that "Given the
demands and restrictions of the human body, it may well turn
out that free verse is inherently barred from the very grandest
heights of poetry."
It should surprise no one that even as neurophysiologists are
finding that metrical poetry delivers "an endorphin payload,"
sociobiologists are concluding that participation in worship likewise occasions the neurologically pleasurable release of endorphins. The relationship between these two findings comes into
sharper focus in the reasoning of I. A. Richards, who believed that
poetry ultimately depends on a magical view of the universe, a
view premised on a belief in spirits, in inspiration, and in the efficacy of ritual. Not all metrical poetry is ritual, of course, but most
rituals do pulse with the regularity of meter.
Predictably, sociobiologists have mistakenly supposed that
the endorphin-inducing effects of worship explain religion-or
rather, explain it away. But why would a gracious God not make
our brains biochemically responsive both to religion and to the
kind of metrical cadence that typically sustains religious ritual?
Atheists can, it is true, write metrical poetry that gives read102



Modern Age - Fall 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Fall 2015

Table of Contents
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Table of Contents
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover2
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 1
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 2
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 3
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 4
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 5
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 6
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 7
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 8
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 9
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 10
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 11
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 12
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 13
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 14
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 15
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 16
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 17
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 18
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 19
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 20
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 21
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 22
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 23
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 24
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 25
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 26
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 27
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 28
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 29
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 30
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 31
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 32
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 33
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 34
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 35
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 36
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 37
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 38
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 39
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 40
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 41
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 42
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 43
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 44
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 45
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 46
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 47
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 48
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 49
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 50
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 51
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 52
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 53
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 54
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 55
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 56
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 57
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 58
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 59
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 60
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 61
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 62
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 63
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 64
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 65
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 66
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 67
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 68
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 69
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 70
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 71
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 72
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 73
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 74
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 75
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 76
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 77
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 78
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 79
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 80
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 81
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 82
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 83
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 84
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 85
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 86
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 87
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 88
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 89
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 90
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 91
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 92
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 93
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 94
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 95
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 96
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 97
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 98
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 99
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 100
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 101
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 102
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 103
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 104
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 105
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 106
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 107
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 108
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 109
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 110
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 111
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 112
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 113
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 114
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 115
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 116
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 117
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 118
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 119
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 120
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 121
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 122
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 123
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 124
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 125
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 126
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 127
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 128
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 129
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 130
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 131
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 132
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 133
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 134
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 135
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 136
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 137
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 138
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 139
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 140
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 141
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 142
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 143
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 144
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 145
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 146
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 147
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 148
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 149
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 150
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 151
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 152
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 153
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 154
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 155
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 156
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover3
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2018winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2015fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014summer
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com