Expectations and Processes in Reading Poetic Narratives

Abstract

Taking up Robert Brooke's suggestion that a model of reading must describe the processes readers use, I examine the expectations and actual reading experiences of two readers reading Swinburne's “A Ballad of Dreamland.” After describing in some detail how the readers mediate among often conflicting expectations to arrive at a plausible interpretation of the poem, I consider the relevance of this orientation—focusing on process rather than on either product or expectations—for research into how readers understand narratives.