Wars, calamity, ships a-sailin', Trojan horses, Grendel's mom, songs of yourself, cyclopses, burning cities, swords.
Ho-hum.
Don't get me wrong. Big poems on big themes are wonderful. But sometimes don't you just have a taste for a poem about something very small? Like a twig? A freckle? Or a cat's paw? How about an atom?
A fellow student just turned me on to these great atom-themed poems by Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673):
What Atomes Make a Dropsie
WHen Atomes round do meet, joyne in one Ball,
Then they swell high, and grow Hydropicall.
Thus joyning they come strong, so powerfull grow,
All other Atomes they do overflow.
The joyning of severall Figur'd Atomes make other Figures.
Severall Figur'd Atomes well agreeing,
When joyn'd, do give another Figure being.
For as those Figures joyned, severall waies,
The Fabrick of each severall Creature raise.
2 comments:
Those poems rock! I've never before considered which atoms would make a dropsie, but now my brains are all a-twitter at the possibilities.
But I think these poems could really benefit from a musical treatment not unlike Sting's "Songs from the Labyrinth", only instead of lutes and mandolins maybe performed with an all-Moog-synthesizer ensemble.
Hey Victor-- ha! Sorry to come to this late. I wholeheartedly agree that these babies call for a Moog!
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