This paper purports to be a short introduction to Cognitive Poetics. After a short introductory section, it will present some aspects of Cognitive Poetics, focussed on a few brief case studies. A review of the twentieth-century critical scene may reveal that there are, on the one hand, impressionist critics who indulge in the effects of literary texts, but have difficulties in relating them to their structures. On the other hand, there are analytic and structuralist critics who excel in the description of the structure of literary texts, but it is not always clear what the human significance is of these texts, or how their perceived effects can be accounted for.