Scientists have intertwined the singular magic of physics and poetry since before the Victorian age. One of the most prominent Victorian poet scientists, James Clerk Maxwell, was famous for his unifying theory of electromagnetism. Others said of him:
James Clerk Maxwell used his poetic talents to skewer his colleagues.
One example of his poetic styling is found in a poem written in honor of fellow physicist, John Tyndall, To the Chief Musician Upon Nabla: A Tyndallic Ode:
I come from empyrean fires,
From microscopic spaces,
Where molecules with fierce desires,
Shiver in hot embraces.
He was also unafraid to poke a little fun at his more prosaic colleagues. He confided in an 1863 letter:
I know several men who see all nature in symbols and express themselves conformably whether in Quintics or Quantics, Invariants or Congruents.
Two years later, thermodynamics theorist William J.M. Rankine aimed squarely at such colleagues and love’s thermodynamic potential when he wrote The Mathematician in Love:
A mathematician fell madly in love
With a lady, young, handsome, and charming:
By angles and ratios harmonic he strove
Her curves and proportions all faultless to prove.
As he scrawled hieroglyphics alarming…
“Let x denote beauty, y, manners well-bred, –
“z, Fortune, – (this last is essential), –
“Let L stand for love”- our philosopher said, –
“Then L is a function of x, y, and z,
“Of the kind which is known as potential.”
“Now integrate L with respect to d t,
“(t Standing for time and persuasion);
“Then, between proper limits, ’tis easy to see,
“The definite integral Marriage must be:-
“(A very concise demonstration).”
Said he-“If the wandering course of the moon
“By Algebra can be predicted,
“The female affections must yield to it soon”-
-But the lady ran off with a dashing dragoon,
And left him amazed and afflicted.
Try It
Write a physics love poem combining warm affection and physics terminology. You could even write a poem of cheesy science pick-up lines like: You are as stunning and as full of possibility as a Protoplanetary Disc or Like the ideal vacuum, you’re the only thing in my universe. Create a little mystery, a little romance, maybe a little humor, and then share your poem with us in the comment section below.
Featured Poem
Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a poem by Maureen we enjoyed:
Law of Averages
If we could write our own vows, we would
forsake those 7 deadly sins, reimagine how
we’d cope with 1.862 children under 18
in a house with just 2, 690 square feet
and 2.37 bathrooms. We’d have to add
1.6 dogs and 2.1 cats but forgo the garage
for the 1.9 vehicles we’d have for the 1.8
drivers in our household. Fair enough!
Would one of us earning $107, 054 mean
the other could retire early after saving
8 times his salary? Because, the truth is,
nobody wants to be actuarially reduced,
especially if the one with the most toys
fails to win the MegaMillions Powerball.
Like everyone else in America, we’d need
a lot more to be more than comfortable,
never knowing when we’d likely be hit
by the proverbial bus tomorrow. Such is
the law of national averages that sticking
it out for 8.2 years would not be nearly long
enough for either of us to grow old together.
Photo by Tom Brown. Creative Commons via Flickr.
Browse more writing prompts
Browse poetry teaching resources
How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.
“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland
- Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
- Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt - March 12, 2018
- Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018
Rick Maxson says
Chandrasekhar Limit
Perhaps I shine brightest now,
but my energy has changed;
what I know is difficult to know
in simple space and time;
passion is a system dying,
if not making new.
Precious is a luxury,
a jewel with maintenance.
I am a white dwarf, long in the truth
of life and death, weighted with mission
that follows me like a shadow,
a penumbra I must now leave behind.
This is the way of creation, nothing
begets nothing. Darkness moves me
into the light.
Heather Eure says
“…weighted with a mission that follows me like a shadow…” A haunting poem, Rick. Excellent.
Andrew H says
Lithium, Potassium and…
A ray splits twice, then twice again
Divergent paths striking on the glass.
So too with you. So too with you,
Who I once thought to share in life,
Divergent ran, along the border of a knife.
Molecules dance in space, the void becomes
Their stately, mystic tango of the soul –
And so, with the light of ten thousand suns
I’d like to dance with you. I would be whole
If I could wake, content, from such an atom dream.
Please. Numbers…can’t compare. I’ve spent my life
Determining values, of sin and pi
But you just laughed and said
“I’ve heard some say it was a sin
To eat too much of apple pie.”
And so a world was broken, and a new
Based not on numbers, but on you,
Was made. What is this fire?
Is it the bunsen that I know so well,
Or does my broken heart now stir?
I shall be Keats in words for you,
I’d sacrifice my play with lithium,
My focus on Potassium.
Instead, I’d whisper of Byzantium
The city of a thousand loves.
So please. I do not beg – how could I?
But still… I wish to ask, if I could,
Whether you would consider me,
Whose heart, only now, is free.
Andrew H says
To clarify, “Lithium, Potassium and…” is the title, not part of the poem. 😛
Heather Eure says
Wow, Andrew. Just wow. This is wonderful …and earnest.
Andrew H says
Thanks, I liked writing it.
Maureen says
Love Is a Lot Like Physics
Love is a lot
like physics:
it takes study
to understand
how masses —
yours, his —
attract; how his body
heat conducts and
your heart rate
accelerates before
either has had time
to evaluate impact.
You think you
understand velocity,
assume his speed
at takeoff matches
yours. You fail to
account for force
or Newton’s third
law of motion.
The outcome of that
one wrong electrical charge
leaves all the circuits
broken. You begin to
oscillate, fall from orbit,
finally calculate the variables
of just so much hot air.
Heather Eure says
So good, Maureen! “You think you understand velocity…” I especially like the trajectory of this poem. 🙂
Monica Sharman says
lens’s smooth surface—
center of curvature locates
the focal point
Prasanta says
Love is Chaos
(It’s relative, generally speaking)
The angle of incidence – the collision
The angle of reflection— the realization
Burned by the egregious refraction
Of searching eyes
What is the (anti) matter
Stretched between magnetic fields
Of Reason and Desire
How will the equation balance—
One side must invariably be solved
(You)—
A centripetal force inveigling —
Explain entropic delusions
and test assumptions of reality.