I being more science minded find that often, science and math people, like myself, can get into a mindset that everything needs to follow from some rule of science and math. We don’t always allow ourselves just to sit back and observe what is happening around us, we want to try to be hands on and make something happen. Reading poetry can help you relax, but also make you think about what you are reading. A lot of poets draw inspiration by simply sitting back and observing what is happening in the world around them. They can then beautifully reflect their observations into their poems. Scientists, and everyone really, need to have an understanding of the little things that make the world beautiful. The little things such as an encounter between a farmer and a mouse, a view looking out across the English channel, or a piece of Grecian pottery. This poem I think helps reflect why scientists should read poems (they might gain a friend).
“The Poem”
Let’s put it under a microscope one said
and see what we can see.
Then we can dissect its inner meaning
whatever that may be.
Hold on for a moment I said,
as they began to start,
rather than pick its brain
let’s get to know its heart.
We sat down to talk face to face
it taught us beauty, it taught us grace,
each word it presented carefully in place.
And when our conversation drew nigh,
so as to never have to say goodbye,
I folded it and in my pocket put it
and every so often I take it out to talk a bit.
One similarity that I would like to note between science and poetry is the emphasis on everything being in its proper place. Like an experiment where every step needs to be performed meticulously to get the desired result, every word in a good poem seems to fit perfectly in its place.
I will leave you with a “scientific” poem I wrote in around first grade.
Jupiter has a red spot
Venus is very hot
The sun is hot
Pluto is not
Your poetry has certainly increased in sophistication since first grade, although can identify a certain honesty that endures up to the present. One thing I believe is that science is very much about observation (less so for math) just as poetry is, which is another similarity in addition to those you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYour poem is so good! I like how it emphasizes that we can learn things from the poems we read and how poems can stay with us as we go through life. I never saw the connection between science and poetry before.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that your second grade poem touches on Pluto, just as Nicholas's Salon Day poem did (though of course, your treatment of Pluto is both simpler and less profane, as befits a child of seven-ish).
ReplyDelete(Also, and more importantly, I love the connections you make between Poetry and Science. There are indeed some significant similarities, and you explore them eloquently.)
ReplyDeleteYour first poem is a very interesting connection to science, as it references "microscopes" and "dissection", both of which are usually scientific terms, but your poem uses these terms with regards to analyzing a poem. The connection of everything being in a proper place is very accurate and also is somewhat similar to what I mentioned with the connections between poetry and programming, which is that in all of poetry, science, and programming, everything needs to be in the correct place.
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