Say It Isn’t So

My math teacher from high school, Mrs. Deborah Costello, posted a link to the article “National Poetry Day: unlock the mathematical secrets of verse” on Facebook and stated, “Mathematicians and poets... its all good! :).”  Let me state for the record: I suck at math.  Sometimes you’ll find me using my fingers to count or frantically searching for a calculator to do what others think of as simple adding and/or subtracting.  So when I saw this article, I was intrigued – what is math doing messing around with poetry?


Here are two short excerpts from the article, which is available here.

Overblown as Erasmus Darwin's verses might seem nowadays, the point of poetry was pattern; to use a strict structure of rhythm and rhyme as a framework for words of passion or pedantry that would become fixed in a reader's brain. Robert Frost put it neatly when he wrote that "Poetry without rules is like tennis without a net".

Poetry, in other words, is mathematics. It is close to a particular branch of the subject known as combinatorics, the study of permutations – of how one can arrange particular groups of objects, numbers or letters according to stated laws (Jones).

I’m not quite sure that I completely agree that poetry is mathematics because it seems to leave out all the passion and creativity that is involved in the creation of said poetry.  And please note, I’m not excluding passion and creativity from mathematics, because I have plenty of friends who are passionate about math in the same manner that I am passionate about literature.  That being said, I did always enjoy writing poetry that was confined to strict patterns because it was like a puzzle; I knew I was on track when all the pieces (aka the words) of said puzzle fell into place.  In some ways, it was more freeing to write within a confined pattern, if that makes any sense.  Anyways, I hope you enjoy the article and Happy (Early) National Poetry Day!


Works Cited:

Jones, Steve. "National Poetry Day: Unlock the Mathematical Secrets of Verse." Telegraph. 5 Oct. 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/steve-jones/8043205/National-Poetry-Day-unlock-the-mathematical-secrets-of-verse.html>.