who was labeled a metaphysical poet by later
critics and writers, turned the existential angst
of religious belief into eloquent and exhaustive
poems in Holy Sonnets. His writings are a
dazzling display of control and chaos. Donne
is an excellent communicator, but his reader is
still left with crises of belief and skepticism.
Like poets, scientists challenge their reality
through observation and methodology. And
their conclusions are often overflowing with
effects that stretch well beyond the science
community. In On the Origin of Species, for
example, Charles Darwin asserted that species
evolve over time through natural selection.
This eventually became the foundation of
the evolutionary sciences. The idea of natural
selection also unintentionally fueled conflicts
between religion and science and justified
racism and neo-imperialism through the notion
of ‘social Darwinism’. As it were, grappling with
scientific breakthroughs compels individuals to
question their beliefs about culture and history.
What happens in science does not simply stay
in science but rather threatens to color every
piece of society.
Poets and scientists therefore are connected
by history as well as method. Both engage with
reality by simply questioning it, rendering it
mysterious enough to ponder and transparent
enough to qualify. Versifying science would
only heighten the public nature of the parallels
between poets and scientists. And to think of
science in a poetic context is to highlight how
often we use metaphor: what are the different
combinations of words and images a scientist
can use to describe what he or she does not yet
know? Accordingly, poems on science topics and
thinking about science in poetic terms are two
daunting ideas, as promising as they are vague.
Science as Symbolism
In her American Scientist piece, Phillips cites
the words of René-Richard Castel, a poet and
naturalist who is the namesake of the Castela
genus of small trees and shrubbery: “A poet
must not aim to teach and advance a science
as much as to show its advantages and make
it loved.” Castel’s quote is admirable yet
ambiguous. How can a poet praise the benefits
of a scientist’s work—say, the discoveries
of one biochemist—without advancing the
social, political, and cultural implications of
6
biochemistry? Does a poet not have a stake in
the science he or she puts into verse?
And what of the poems that use scientific
language and concepts to saturate a subject
with symbolism? While scientists have used
poems as means to access a more general
audience, poets have also used bits of
science—the experience of nature, the physical
differences between humans and other animals,
physical and psychiatric illnesses—to shape
the representation of topics like memory,
individuality, and autonomy of the self.
In July 1798, for instance, William
Wordsworth meditated on the awe of time and
memory while touring the River Wye between
Tintern and Bristol in northern England.
Wordsworth’s meditation became “Lines
written a few miles above Tintern Abbey,” one
of the key poems in the Romantic movement
in English literature. The poem is an exuberant
ode to a great number of things, particularly
the wonders of imagination and an individual’s
life as a child. Throughout “Tintern Abbey,”
Wordsworth develops thoughts as he eyes the
geological diversity of the English countryside.
Recalling his first venture into Tintern Abbey,
Wordsworth remarks,
“I bounded o’er the mountains,
by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the
lonely streams,
Wherever nature led.”
Elsewhere in “Tintern Abbey,” geologic time
and human time are juxtaposed, and it’s this
juxtaposition that is alluring. Mountains and
streams are constantly moving, changing the
appearance of natural landscape. The geological
perspective on time is often too expansive for
one person to fully comprehend. People, on the
other hand, experience time by piecing together
memories. Human perception of time is thus
crafted by everything from personal experiences
to changes in the biochemistry of the body.
Less than a century later, Christina Rossetti
combined the bodies and behaviors of male
merchants and animals in “Goblin Market.”
Rossetti writes,
SciArt in America October 2014