A Selection of 19th Century Scientific Verse

Various

Lu par Ruth Golding

(4.8 stars; 5 reviews)

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was common for discoveries in branches of science such as botany, astronomy and medicine to be described in book-length treatises in verse. By the end of the 19th century this mode of popularising science was falling from favour as the studies of science and the humanities diverged and study became more specialised.

This small selection of somewhat lighter-hearted verse written by distinguished scientists and mathematicians of the day includes poems by James Clerk Maxwell, William J. Macquorn Rankine and James Joseph Sylvester. (Summary by Ruth Golding) (0 hr 47 min)

Chapitres

To F. W. F.	9:04	Lu par Ruth Golding
Lines Written Under the Conviction that it is Not Wise to Read Mathematics in N…	4:58	Lu par Ruth Golding
A Problem in Dynamics	6:23	Lu par Ruth Golding
In Memory of Edward Wilson: Rigid Body	1:20	Lu par Ruth Golding
Valentine by a Telegraph Clerk (Male) to a Telegraph Clerk (Female)	1:28	Lu par Ruth Golding
Lectures to Women on Physical Science	5:13	Lu par Ruth Golding
To the Chief Musician upon Nabla	4:20	Lu par Ruth Golding
To the Committee of the Cayley Portrait Fund	1:58	Lu par Ruth Golding
Molecular Evolution	2:24	Lu par Ruth Golding
The Mathematician in Love	3:37	Lu par Ruth Golding
The Three-foot Rule: a Song about Standards of Measure	2:19	Lu par Ruth Golding
To a Missing Member of a Family Group of Terms in an Algebraical Formula	1:29	Lu par Ruth Golding
The Infant Metaphysician	2:29	Lu par Ruth Golding

Critiques

Three cheers

(5 stars)

Horatio Drake

1st cheer for this collection of gems of light-hearted fun poems. 2nd cheer for Ruth Golding's beautiful voice. 3rd cheer for her rendition of singing two of the poems. By the way, what's the happy melody chosen for "Three Foot Rule"? I first learned about James Maxwell 's poem on William Thomson's (later lord Kelvin) mirror galvanometer in a coursera course "Introduction to Probability" by prof. Santos Venkatesh (a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan). This is the 2nd time I learned about this poem in this collection. I am delighted and a little transfixed.