Language is not only a communication tool for humans, but it also plays an important role to improve humans’ thinking skills. Literature components in languages help humans to cultivate emotional and intellectual intelligence. Most readers are inclined towards emotional intelligence (aesthetic values) rather than the intellectualvelements exposed in the literature. Thus, this study presents the intellectual poetic structure in Thirukkural. The data were analyzed qualitatively based on document analysis. The analysis was carried out based on the poetic cognitive theory which was proposed by Tsur Rven (2002). First, the researcher has identified the elements of poetic cognitive in Thirukkural then those elements were analysed. Findings show that Thirukkural is one of the Tamil literature which stimulates thinking skills namely creative and critical thinking skills. These thinking skills were revealed by the figurative language used in the Thirukkural.  ..

444 hits