Okay, this post is not about a book, but an article. Chet Raymo uses the poet Ted Hughes to show that "scientists need poets to teach us how to see." As I read this article, I could see more in a poem by Ted Hughes because the scientist read it through scientific eyes. Let me share one paragraph of the article, then the link so you can read it yourself:
At poem's end, a lifeless young swift is cupped in the poet's hand, in "balsa death." What a phrase! By it we are made to feel the surprising unheaviness of the bird in the hand, the hollowed-out bones and wire-thin struts beneath the skin of feathers, a tiny machine perfected by 100 million years of evolution to skim on air, as light as balsa.
The article
Science and Metaphor can be read
here.
Okay, this post is not about a book, but an article. Chet Raymo uses the poet Ted Hughes to show that "scientists need poets to teach us how to see." As I read this article, I could see more in a poem by Ted Hughes because the scientist read it through scientific eyes. Let me share one paragraph of the article, then the link so you can read it yourself:
Hi Bonnie,
ReplyDeleteI love the Hughes poem and the imagery this provides. The whole section about the lightness of the bird in the hand helps us to understand why birds fly.
I've read this article and others at the blog numerous times, and I believe that Raymo himself is a poet. He uses language in a way that makes science understandable to everyday folks.
Thanks for posting on this.
Regards,
Tricia