In a message dated 8/16/00 1:43:43 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

>  Always wondered what would happen if readers read at the same pace a piece
>  was written, dwelling on each word like a lollipop of an idea before going
>  on to the next.

cp

One tactic of poetry is to make itself so complicated in the net of wording
that the reader is forced to slow down and savor each word... particularly
when it suddenly dawns on them that the gibberish they have been quickly
glossing will make better sense if they adjust their own viewpoint and
pacing. The technique relies on concentrations of double meanings, puns, and
idiom. A refinement is to write something that makes obvious sense on the
surface, but a whole nother sense when read closely, and the more layers of
sense the more refined. This is one reason why translations of poetry so
often do not work well.

So, there is conceivably readers that savor each word more than less savoring
readers and non-readers, though even in the case of the most savoring not as
slowly as the author creating the complex text. There are also readers who
are more practiced at comprehending complex texts, or have a higher
sensitivity to words... just as some have a better color sense, though too
heightened a sensitivity can become indistiguishable from the habit of
reading too much into a simple minded message.

][<en