Sentence:  William Wimsatt and Cleanth Brooks , it seems to me , have a penetrating insight into the way in which this control is effected : `` For if we say poetry is to talk of beauty and love ( and yet not aim at exciting erotic emotion or even an emotion of Platonic esteem ) and if it is to talk of anger and murder ( and yet not aim at arousing anger and indignation ) - <WSD>then</WSD> it may be that the poetic way of dealing with these emotions will not be any kind of intensification , compounding , or magnification , or any direct assault upon the affections at all . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  in that case or as a consequence