Far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined! Why do the poets of
the present not speak of it?
—Richard Feynman, 1964
Whoever knows many things by nature is a poet.
—Pindar, 476 BC
A man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical
and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet.
—John Dryden, 1674
Thus easier ‘tis to hold that many things
Have primal bodies in common (as we see
The single letters common to many words)
[…]
Vexed through the ages (as indeed they are)
By the innumerable blows of chance.
—Lucretius, first century BC
15
In his hand
He took the golden compasses prepar’d
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things:
One foot he centr’d, and the other turned
Round through the vast profunditie obscure,
And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus farr they bounds,
This be thy just Circumference, O World.’
—John Milton, 1667
16
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
—William Blake, 1863
17
I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in
your minds.
—Michael Faraday, 1858
Mendeleev’s Periodic Table [is] poetry, loftier and more solemn than all the poetry we had
swallowed down in liceo; and come to think of it, it even rhymed!
—Primo Levi, 1975
15
From his famous poem On the Nature of Things; translation by William Ellery Leonard.
16
From Paradise Lost.
17
From Auguries of Innocence.
108
On Writing, Literature, Poetry, and Journalism
the present not speak of it?
—Richard Feynman, 1964
Whoever knows many things by nature is a poet.
—Pindar, 476 BC
A man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical
and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet.
—John Dryden, 1674
Thus easier ‘tis to hold that many things
Have primal bodies in common (as we see
The single letters common to many words)
[…]
Vexed through the ages (as indeed they are)
By the innumerable blows of chance.
—Lucretius, first century BC
15
In his hand
He took the golden compasses prepar’d
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things:
One foot he centr’d, and the other turned
Round through the vast profunditie obscure,
And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus farr they bounds,
This be thy just Circumference, O World.’
—John Milton, 1667
16
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
—William Blake, 1863
17
I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in
your minds.
—Michael Faraday, 1858
Mendeleev’s Periodic Table [is] poetry, loftier and more solemn than all the poetry we had
swallowed down in liceo; and come to think of it, it even rhymed!
—Primo Levi, 1975
15
From his famous poem On the Nature of Things; translation by William Ellery Leonard.
16
From Paradise Lost.
17
From Auguries of Innocence.
108
On Writing, Literature, Poetry, and Journalism