Mathematical language can heighten the imagery of a poem; mathematical structure can deepen its effect. Feast on an international menu of poems made rich by mathematical ingredients -- and gathered here by JoAnne Growney, whose personal website is at https://joannegrowney.com/ .
As you may know aready, British folks uss "maths" as a shortened version of "mathematics" -- while those of us in the U.S. use "math". A fun-to-visit website that I found recenly is MoreThanMaths.com; at the site (at which postings ended in 2015) a search for "poem" led me to this link -- where I found lots of students' mathy poems, including this one:
From the March 1994 issue of Poetry, this thoughtful poem by Pennsylvania poet and professor Robert Bernard Hass:
With line-lengths whose syllable-counts follow the Fibonacci numbers, a writer has the opportunity to develop a gradually expanding thought. Here are the opening lines of a Fibonacci poem by poet Punya Mishra following that pattern:
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| Mishra's complete poem is found here. |
In today's news I learned of the recent death of award-winning author Wendell Berry (1934–2026). In more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays, Berry explored the notion of living a principled life in accordance with the natural world. His many volumes of poetry include The Broken Ground, The Country of Marriage, and Collected Poems, 1957–1982. True to his vision, Berry lived with his wife, Tanya, on a farm in Kentucky that had been in his family since the nineteenth century,
Here, from the Poetry Foundation website, is one of Berry's fine poems. (published in 1962 and a little bit mathy) exploring the passage of time:
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