{"id":22880,"date":"2013-04-20T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-04-20T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/mathgradblog\/?p=22880"},"modified":"2014-07-15T14:49:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T19:49:55","slug":"math-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/mathgradblog\/2013\/04\/20\/math-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Math and Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might be aware that April is Mathematics Awareness Month (this year\u2019s theme is \u2018Mathematics of Sustainability\u2019). April is also National Poetry Month, and while it might seem a funny coincidence that these two separate disciplines are celebrated at the same time, math and poetry have more in common than you might think. As Jean Joseph pointed out earlier this month<\/a>, the Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam was also a prolific poet. The Journal of Online Mathematics and Its Applications<\/i><\/a> discusses several poems with mathematical influences, sorting them into two categories: those that utilize mathematical imagery and those that are structured mathematically. Mathematical imagery might include geometric descriptions or allusions to theorems; a mathematically structured poem might prescribe a strict syllable count, similar to a haiku, or have a strong visual component\u2014the physical layout of the words might construct a triangle or other shape.<\/p>\n

When I was an undergraduate, I studied both writing and mathematics, so it\u2019s very fun for me to think about ways the subjects might intersect. One of my favorite mathematically-themed poems is \u201cEquation,\u201d by Caroline Caddy. I think it\u2019s a really lovely poem, as well as a really good description of how it feels to work your way through something frustrating and yet enjoy the experience, which is often how doing math feels to me. Here is the first stanza, and if you follow the link, you can read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.<\/p>\n

(from \u201cEquation<\/a>\u201d by Caroline Caddy):<\/p>\n

Someone said<\/p>\n

that working through difficult equations<\/p>\n

was like walking<\/p>\n

in a pure and beautiful landscape \u2013<\/p>\n

the numbers glowing<\/p>\n

like works of art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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You might be aware that April is Mathematics Awareness Month (this year\u2019s theme is \u2018Mathematics of Sustainability\u2019). April is also National Poetry Month, and while it might seem a funny coincidence that these two separate disciplines are celebrated at the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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