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Math, Science, & Technology Prompt: Physics Love Poem

By Heather Eure 11 Comments

math_science_&_technology
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.

(Read the full poem here)

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.

—by Maureen Doallas

Photo by Tom Brown. Creative Commons via Flickr.


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How to Write a Poem 283 high 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.

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  • Author
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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
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Filed Under: Blog, Math-Science-Technology, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, Themed Writing Projects, writer's group resources, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Rick Maxson says

    November 10, 2015 at 1:30 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      November 11, 2015 at 11:15 pm

      “…weighted with a mission that follows me like a shadow…” A haunting poem, Rick. Excellent.

      Reply
  2. Andrew H says

    November 10, 2015 at 10:14 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Andrew H says

      November 10, 2015 at 10:17 am

      To clarify, “Lithium, Potassium and…” is the title, not part of the poem. 😛

      Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      November 11, 2015 at 11:18 pm

      Wow, Andrew. Just wow. This is wonderful …and earnest.

      Reply
      • Andrew H says

        November 12, 2015 at 4:55 am

        Thanks, I liked writing it.

        Reply
  3. Maureen says

    November 10, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      November 11, 2015 at 11:23 pm

      So good, Maureen! “You think you understand velocity…” I especially like the trajectory of this poem. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Monica Sharman says

    November 13, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    lens’s smooth surface—
    center of curvature locates
    the focal point

    Reply
  5. Prasanta says

    November 16, 2015 at 12:28 am

    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.

    Reply

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  1. Math, Science, & Technology Poetry Prompt: Wider Than the Sky - says:
    November 16, 2015 at 8:01 am

    […] to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a poem from Andrew we […]

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