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Abstract

Literature offers human beings delightful instruction. Even if the sole purpose of literature is viewed as entertainment, it is possible to discern threads of didacticism in every genre of literature. More so is the case of poetry. Poetry offers delight, instruction persuasion and times methods of salvation too. Salavation, in this case is not to be taken in its soteriological  sense, but rather as method to overcome the sixth apocalypse. Mary Oliver’s poem “Spring” is one such poem which describes the love of a bear and the actions of a bear after its period of hibernation. The poem reveals a kind of earth-love and how on reading the poem, the readers are expected to mirror such actions to the extent possible. The aesthetic quality of the poem should cause changes in attitudes and actions. Or in other words brain neurons should be activated differently. The concept of neuro-aesthetics is applied to find out how poems can alter perceptions.

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