Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Try it -- you'll like it -- write an ACROSTIC poem!

     When solving problems in mathematics, the constraints that are imposed on the solution often are helpful in solving it. As a simple example, if we are given the lengths of  the two shorter sides in a scalene triangle, the problem becomes easily solvable if we know that the triangle is a right triangle.
     Poets also often find constrains helpful in shaping their words into special meaning.  For example, the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the poetry-pattern called a sonnet have led to many notable poems.  In this blog, in earlier postings, we have celebrated the FIB -- a six line poem whose syllable-counts obey the Fibonacci numbers. A popular form of poetry for calling attention to a particular idea is an ACROSTIC poem -- a poem in which the first (or other) letters of each line spell out a word or phrase.  Here is my sample:  MATH POEMS HELP US SEE.   

     M     My
          algebra
     T      teacher
          has   

     P      poems for us
         on
     E      every
         mathematics
     S      sheet she hands us --

     H      helping
     E      each
     L      lively, learning
     P      pupil

     U      use
           symbolism

     S      sensibly, shrewdly, strongly
          easily, effectively,
     E      everlastingly.

Here is a link to a statistics-acrostic poem posted in this blog back in 2014.  And this link leads to a selection of mathy sonnets.

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