Maths & Poetry

[devarajkandadai]

Are mathematicians good poets? Here is my only published poem: u b the judge.

A PEEP THROUGH THE VEIL
--------------------------------------

Beyond the gates of Death
The realms of gold & wealth
Lie the spheres of life and love
To which we must all row
The boats - our bodies mental
Before we take the plunge final
Into the Ocean Immeasurable
Of bliss eternal & inconceivable.

Freed from the cage corporeal
Shall we fly to the realms ethereal
Where friendship does not pine
And love is life's design.

A.K. Devaraj

[mfgoode]

I have published a poem years ago but its too long to be put here.
I came across a couple of lyrics which I jotted in my diary.
Heres the first one.,



"There was a young fellow from TRINITY,
Who took the square root of infinity,
But the number of digits,
Gave him the fidgets;
He dropped math and took up divinity."

2) "There was a young fellow named Fisk
Whose fencing was exceedingly brisk,
So fast was his action
The Fitz-Gerald contraction
Reduced his rapier to a disk"

3) To each is given a book of rules,
,A block of stone and a bag of tools,
And each must ere time has flown,
Build a stumbling block or a stepping stone."

Mally

[xilman]

My first degree was in chemistry, hence my fondness for the following:


An ant was heard to complain,
A chemist had damaged his brain.
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-dichloro
Diphenyltrichloroethane.


Math poetry to follow, perhaps, after I've sobered up.

Paul

[mfgoode]

Heres a couple more.

"There was a young lady called Bright,
Whose speed was much faster than light,
She went out one day,
In a relative way,
And came back the previos night.


"Three wonderful people called Stein,
Theres Gert and theres Ep and theres Ein,
Gert writes in blank verse,
Ep's sculptures are worse,
And nobody understands Ein."


Mally

[mfgoode]

Weierstrass (1815-97) from whom the modern epoch of analysis developed has this to say.
"No mathematician can be a complete mathematician unless he is also something of a poet" K. Weierstrass

Mally

[wpolly]

Originally Posted by xilman

My first degree was in chemistry, hence my fondness for the following:


An ant was heard to complain,
A chemist had damaged his brain.
The cause of his sorrow
Was para-dichloro
Diphenyltrichloroethane.


Math poetry to follow, perhaps, after I've sobered up.

Paul

This is DDT?(CCl3CH(C6H4Cl)2)

[TauCeti]

I'll also give it a try - comments welcome:


TRANSCENDENTAL DEMENTIA
----------------------------

They call me 'minus sixteen',
born to the aristocratic caste of integers
aleph nought snobbish brothers and sisters,
entangled in infinite boredom...

Aeons ago i fell in love,
to an irrational,
that is i thought she was,
so beautiful, so thrilling,
my colorful angel.

I lost her so soon,
bereavement of a lover,
she was not algebraic,
dormant transcendental dementia,
gone beyond remedy.

Now i will resign,
no 'minus sixteen' anymore.
I detest your sniveling axioms,
your dogmatic attitudes,
your carelessness.

farewell humankind.

(Lars Fricke 2004)