Monday, November 11, 2019

Mathematics -- something useful ... or beautiful ...

     I offer a sample below from a poem by Jane Hirshfield entitled "Mathematics" and invite you to go here to read the entire poem -- and to reflect on it.  What does the poem say that is true about mathematics?

from Mathematics     by Jane Hirshfield

          I've envied those 
          who make something 
          useful, sturdy— or
          a chair, a pair of boots.  

          Even a soup,
          rich with potatoes and cream.
 . . .
          Does a poem enlarge the world, 
          or only our idea of the world?

          How do you take one from the other . . . 

Jane Hirshfield's "Mathematics” is found online here at PoetryFoundation.org and appears in her collection  Given Sugar, Given Salt (HarperCollins, 2001).

3 comments:

  1. Really interesting! How do you think mathematics relates? Is that her vision of something useful, or a kind of calculus of what she makes or...?

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    1. My reading of Hirshfield's poem obeys her title and links each of her ideas to mathematics -- something useful, cooking, fixing, wallpaper patterns . . .
      And then, toward the end, I wonder -- "Does mathematics enlarge the world or only our idea of the world?"

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