Mathematicians with poetic tendency often use their word-talents to write song-lyrics rather than poems; a master of the song-writing art was/is Tom Lehrer. As an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1940s, Lehrer majored in mathematics; he is best known for songs he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. Here are Lehrer's lyrics for "The Derivative Song" -- written to be sung to the tune of "There'll Be Some Changes Made" (by Benton Overstreet, with original lyrics by Billy Higgins).
Showing posts with label Peter Cameron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Cameron. Show all posts
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . .
At Peter Cameron's Blog, "Counting the things that need to be counted," the July 14, 2010 entry contains a reflective poem entitled "Millenium" which meditates on the ten digits in stanzas whose lengths count them. Here are the opening stanzas:
Labels:
ambiguity,
counting,
digits,
mathematics,
Peter Cameron,
poetry
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Poets who Count
For some poets, counting is part of the language of the poem. For others, counting determines the structure. Here are two poems of the former sort -- "Counting" by British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) and "Adding It Up" by New England poet Philip Booth (1925-2007) -- followed by opening stanzas of a poem for which counting is part of both content and structure: "Millennium" by mathematician Peter Cameron .
Labels:
account,
add,
blog,
count,
counting,
measure,
numbers,
one,
Peter Cameron,
Philip Booth,
Philip Larkin,
poetry,
spiral,
ten,
translation,
two
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