Readings for "Mathematics in Poetry"
- Baumel, Judith, The Weight of Numbers, Wesleyan University Press,
1988.
- Includes "Fibonacci," "Thirty-six Poets."
- Dodson, Norman E., Math Poetry and Stuff, collected by Norman E.
Dodson. Carlton Press, 1981.
- Includes "To a Basketball Player Named Fred" by C. Ray Wylie and
other limericks.
- Dove, Rita, Selected Poems, New York, Vintage Books, 1993.
- In 1993 Rita Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United States, the
youngest person and the first Afro-American to hold this honor. In
"Geometry" (page 17) she describes the ecstasy that results from
obtaining the proof of a difficult theorem.
- Fadiman, Clifton, The Mathematical Magpie, New York, Simon and
Schuster, 1962. Also Fantasia Mathematica, 1958.
- Magpie includes essays, rhymes, and anecdotes, many amusing.
Fantasia has some short stories and poems, including "Euclid Alone Has
Looked on Beauty Bare" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Euclid" by Vachel
Lindsay and the limerick, "There Was an Old Man Who Said, 'Do . . . ."
- Gordon, B. B., editor. Songs from Unsung Worlds: Science in Poetry,
Boston, Birkhauser, 1985.
- Includes "Zito the Magician" by Miroslav Holub.
- Gordon, Isabel S. and Sophie Sorkin, editors, The Armchair Science
Reader, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1959.
- Includes "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman.
- Growney, JoAnne, Intersections, Kadet Press, Bloomsburg, 1993;
available from the author.
- Includes "A Mathematician's Nightmare," "The Prince of Algebra,"
"You asked me for a birthday gift suggestion . . ." and other
mathematical poems.
- Heaford, Philip, The Math Entertainer, Buchanan, NY, Emerson Books.
- Rhymes and puzzles.
- Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal.
- Many issues of this journal contain poetry and articles about the
links between mathematics and the arts. To join the Humanistic
Mathematics Network and receive its journal, contact Alvin White,
Department of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711.
- Moritz, Robert E., editor, Memorabilia Mathematica, New York,
Macmillan, 1914.
- Reissued in 1993 by the MAA along with a companion volume, Out of
the Mouths of Mathematicians by Rosemary Schmalz. Moritz' collection
includes verse by Dante, DeMorgan, Goethe, and Wordsworth and a mnemonic
by A.C. Orr for the first thirty digits of pi.
- Nemerov, Howard, The Western Approaches, University of Chicago
Press, 1975.
- Includes "Figures of Thought," which describes the wonder felt at
the discovery of the logarithmic spiral realized in diverse ways in
nature , and "Two Pair," which links gambling with laws of
thermodynamics and with Biblical laws.
- Newman, James R., Mathematics: A Small Library of the Literature of
Mathematics, presented with Commentaries and Notes by James R. Newman,
Redmond, WA, Tempus, 1956, 1988.
- Plotz, Helen, editor, Imagination's Other Place: Poems of Science
and Mathematics, T. Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1955.
- Includes "Four Quartz Crystal Clocks" by Marianne Moore,
"Arithmetic" by Carl Sandburg and other poems with mathematical imagery.
- Robson, E. and J. Wimp, Editors, Against Infinity: An Anthology of
Contemporary Mathematical Poetry, Parker Ford, PA. Primary Press, 1979.
- Includes "Algebra" by Linda Pastan, "Zito the Magician" by Miroslav
Holub, and many more.
Poetry Selections for "Mathematics in Poetry"
- "Arithmetic Lesson: Infinity" by Linda Pastan
- Found on pages 48-49 of Against Infinity: An Anthology of
Contemporary Mathematical Poetry, edited by E. Robson and J. Wimp,
Parker Ford, PA. Primary Press, 1979.
- "My Dance is Mathematics" by JoAnne Growney
- Forthcoming (Winter 1995-96) in Mathematics Magazine.
- "Geometry" by Rita Dove
- Found on page 17 of Rita Dove's Selected Poems , New York, Vintage
Books, 1993.
- "Geometry Class" by JoAnne Growney
- Forthcoming (Spring 1996) in The College Mathematics Journal.
- "Figures of Thought" by Howard Nemerov
- Found on page 46 of The Western Approaches by Howard Nemerov,
University of Chicago Press, 1975.
- "Ode to Numbers" by Pablo Neruda
- Found (in Spanish and in English translation by Margaret Sayers
Peden) on pages 94-99 of Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda, Berkeley,
University of California Press, 1990.
- "pi" by Robert Morgan
- Found in Poetry, v. clxi, no. 5 (January, 1993), page 204.
- "The Prince of Algebra" by JoAnne Growney
- Found on pages 52-53 of Intersections: Poems by JoAnne Growney,
Bloomsburg PA, Kadet Press, Bloomsburg, 1993; also on page 639 of v.
101, No. 7 (August-September, 1994) of The American Mathematical
Monthly.
- Landscape VI from "Six Significant Landscapes" by Wallace Stevens
- Found on page 75 of The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, New
York, Vintage Books, 1990.
- Section II from "Cherry Trees" by A. E. Housman
- Found on page 10 of The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman, New York,
Henry Holt, 1940.
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