POETRY OF THE STARS A LITERARY INTERLUDE John C. Mannone SWEETWATER PUBLIC LIBRARY MAY 3, 2003

1. POETRY OF THE STARS A LITERARY INTERLUDE John C. Mannone SWEETWATER PUBLIC LIBRARY MAY 3, 2003

2. Abstract: Our literary heritage and the science of astronomy are both appreciated more by studying how the Sun, moon, stars, and planets are used in poetry. Examples of how both metaphor and physics blend will be presented through the quill of Frost, Byron, and Longfellow, as well as authors of some classic and ancient texts.

3. INTRODUCTION

4. Poetry of the Stars The stars sing a symphony of a mystery, alas! Which the Astronomer tries to unlock, With eyes on the magical looking glass;..And Physicists do marvel their spectral frock With equations of light and size and mass;..But Poets see the stellar bright so awestruck; With clever words, your lonely heart he’ll bless;..For The stars ring a harmony of a beauty unsurpassed. John C. MannoneOctober 1, 2002

5. ASTRONOMY AND POETIC LITERATURE

6. SYNERGISM ASTRONOMY IS GOOD FOR LITERATURE LITERATURE IS GOOD FOR ASTRONOMY LITERATURE IS REPLETE WITH ASTRONOMICAL REFERENCES LITERATURE IS ENHANCED BY THE STELLAR METAPHORS ASTRONOMY IS APPRECIATED THROUGH SUBTLE EMBELLISHMENTS

7. POETRY AS THE LITERARY VEHICLE CAPTURES EMOTION EFFECTIVELY INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHICAL AND ANALYTICAL

8. ALLITERATIVE ARRAY OF ASTRONOMICAL ALLUSIONS ALL ASSORTED APPLICATIONS METAPHORICAL METAPHYSICAL MATTER OF FACT MATTER OF HISTORICAL DATES MONTH TO MILLENIA MATTER OF HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE MONUMENTAL MATTER OF VALIDATION MATTER OF LAW MAGISTRATIVE MELADRAMATIC MYSTICAL AND MAGICAL MAJICAL MAGNIFICENCE

9. LITERARY ASPECTS OF POETRY

10. POETRY ANCIENT HEBREW POETRY WORD PICTURE (PARALLELISM OF IDEAS) CLASSIC GREEK POETRY METER (PARALLELISM OF TIME) TRADITIONAL ENGLISH POETRY RHYME (PARALLELISM OF SOUND)

11. ANCIENT HEBREW POETRY Symbolic parallelism through an analogy: An artist gathers the canvas, the brushes, the paints. He sketches an outline, then carefully fills in the details. An aesthetically pleasing picture is created, first with broad strokes, then with precise measure.

12. Torah (1500 BC) As an example, recall the creation account in the Hebrew Scriptures: Note the poetry in the general theme, Darkness, formless, and void => Light, firmament, and life In coarse details (the broad strokes of creation), The sea, the sky, the land created => The fish, the fowl, the animals filled the earth In fine details, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1: 27) Note the repetition for emphasis, but more importantly the mirror imaging of words for the visual effect. Note the coupled clauses.

13. Book of Psalms (1000 BC) An Astronomy example, He appointed the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down. (Psalm 104: 19) This is actually a profound statement about the “two great lights”. Earth’s seasons are stabilized by the Moon holding the spin axis rigidly (alternating prolonged ice ages and scorching desert ages) Earth is in a very stable orbit around the Sun to ensure the extremely narrow “Goldilocks” zone for habitation.

14. CLASSIC GREEK POETRY short long da DUM The Long and the Short of it Unlike the poetry of English and many other modern European languages, which is based on patterns of stress accent, Greek meter is based on patterns of long and short syllables. In Greek verse, the basic unit of time is the mora; A short syllable is a single mora and a long two. Groups of syllables of up to six or even seven morae divisions, are called feet. These patterns are the fundamental building blocks of Greek verse. Lines can be defined by grouping a certain kind of foot; if there are 3, it’s a trimeter; 4, a tetrameter; 5, a pentameter; etc up to seven.

15. Iambic pentameter is the building block of about two- thirds of medieval and Renaissance English poetic forms. Words like divine, caress, bizarre, and delight sound sort of like a heartbeat: daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM[da]. We hold these truths to be self-evident Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence"

16. Homer (800 BC) and Hesiod (700 BC) The dactylic, or heroic, hexameter is the meter of Epic. It is also the meter of a didactic poet like Hesiod. But its all Greek to me, so here is a translation… “Moreover, she made the wind fair and warm for him, and gladly did Ulysses spread his sail before it, while he sat and guided the raft skillfully by means of the rudder. He never closed his eyes, but kept them fixed on the Pleiads, on late-setting Bootes, and on the Bear- which men also call the wain, and which turns round and round where it is, facing Orion, and alone never dipping into the stream of Oceanus- for Calypso had told him to keep this to his left. Days seven and ten did he sail over the sea, and on the eighteenth the dim outlines of the mountains on the nearest part of the Phaeacian coast appeared, rising like a shield on the horizon.” (Homer, The Odyssey, Book V, translated Samuel Butler)

17. Athens, Greece October 1, 800 BC 8 PM Local Time Arcturus Polaris Pleiades Ursa Major Sky Chart III

18. TRADITIONAL ENGLISH POETRY Rhyme the most prominent of the literary artifices used in versification. Used in ancient East Asian poetry Rarely in ancient Greek and Roman poetry. When classical quantitative meters were replaced by accentual meters, rhyme began to develop, especially in the sacred Latin poetry of the early Christian church.

19. Rhyme Scheme and Structure

20. ASTRONOMICAL ASPECTS IN POETRY

21. PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY TIME LINE APPLICABLE TO THE POET AND THE POEM 1667 A.D. Newton discovers law of universal gravitation. A.D. Edmund Halley discovers stars move through space. 1802 A.D. William Herschel shows many double stars are binaries. 1826 A.D. Olbers paradox 1862 A.D. William Huggins identifies chemical elements in stars. 1862 A.D. Edmund Haley discovers first white dwarf (Sirius B). 1872 A.D. Henry Draper photographs of the stellar spectrum of Vega. 1877 A.D. Giovanni Schiaparelli discovers "canals" of Mars. 1879 A.D. Stefan-Boltzmann Law 1900 A.D. Planck Radiation Law 1905 A.D. Mount Wilson Observatory was established for study of the Sun. 1905 A.D. Albert Einstein introduces Special Theory of Relativity 1908 A.D. Hertzsprung describes giant and dwarf stars. 1908 A.D. Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovers Cepheid variables.

22. PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY TIME LINE APPLICABLE TO THE POET AND THE POEM 1914 A.D. Hertzsprung-Russel diagram 1914 A.D. Robert Goddard begins practical rocketry. 1916 A.D. Albert Einstein introduces his General Theory of Relativity. 1917 A.D. 100” Mt. Wilson Telescope 1923 A.D. Hubble shows that galaxies exist outside the Milky Way galaxy. 1926 A.D. Robert Goddard uses first liquid rocket fuel. 1927 A.D. Oort shows the center of the Milky Way galaxy is in Sagittarius. 1929 A.D. Edwin Hubble discover’s Hubble’s Law 1930 A.D. Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. 1931 A.D. Karl Jansky discovers cosmic radio waves. 1932 A.D. Chadwick discovers the neutron in atom splitting experiments. 1937 A.D. First radio telescope built by Grote Reber. 1938 A.D. Hans Bethe proposes the proton-proton fusion process in the Sun. 1948 A.D. 200” Mt. Polamar Telescope

23. MYTHOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN POETRY

24. Bulfinch'sMythology By Thomas Bulfinch To HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The Poet Alike Of The Many And Of The Few, This Attempt To Popularize Mythology, And Extend The Enjoyment Of Elegant Literature, Is Respectfully Inscribed

26. LITERARY INTERLUDE

27. THE POETRY OF ROBERT LEE FROST 1874-1963 Frost's poetry is structured within traditional metrical and rhythmical schemes; he disliked free verse (not constrained by rhyme or rhythm). Frost's emotional range is wide and deep. Much of his poetry is concerned with the interaction between humans and nature. Frost regarded nature as a beautiful but dangerous force. His work shows his strong sympathy for the values of early American society.

28. A Star in a Stone Boat The Star-Splitter * Fire and Ice The Freedom of the Moon Fireflies in the Garden Acquainted with the Night Canis Major On Looking Up by Chance at the Constellations Lost in Heaven Moon Compasses The Lesson for Today The Literate Farmer and the Planet Venus Were I in Trouble Bravado On Making Certain Anything Has Happened In the Long Night Astrometaphysical The Milky Way is a Cow Path Some Science Fiction Two Leading Lights Etherealizing Why Wait for Science Take Something Like a Star

29. Choose Something Like a Star Robert Frost 1947 O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud -- It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says ``I burn.'' But say with what degree of heat.

30. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. Tell us what elements you blend. It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats' Eremite, Not even stooping from its sphere, It asks little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise of blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid.

31. Choose Something Like a Star Robert Frost 1947 Frost refers to Keat’s poem, “Bright Star” (1819); an Eremite is a hermit detached and watching, much like a muse. The star is detached from the Earth as if lofty and watchful. The star cannot tell him about the meaning of life, only what the “heavens declare”. Blackbody radiation was understood turn of the 20th century. Star light peak wavelength gives star’s surface temperature [lambda, meters = 0.0029/T (K)]. Elemental analysis from star light was understood (Huggins 1862). Stellar spectroscopy was well established by the middle of 20th century. It was taught in basic college science courses and amateur astronomers would have been privy at that time.

32. STARS APPEAR AS COLORED JEWELS CLASSIFIED TO BY COLOR AND TEMPERATURE

33. The Star-Splitter Robert Frost 1923 You know Orien always comes up sideways. Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains… So Brad McLaughlin mingled reckless talk Of heavenly stars with hugger-mugger farming, Till having failed at hugger-mugger farming, He burned his house down for the fire insurance And spent the proceeds on a telescope To satisfy a life-long curiosity About our place among the infinities…

34. …not plants As on a farm, but planets, evening stars That varied in their hue from red to green. He got a good glass for six hundred dollars. His new job gave him leisure for star-gazing. Often he bid me come and have a look Up the brass barrel, velvet black inside, At a star quaking in the other end. I recollect a night of broken clouds And underfoot snow melted down to ice, And melting further in the wind to mud. Bradford and I had out the telescope.

35. We spread our two legs as it spread its three, Pointed our thoughts the way we pointed it, And standing at our leisure till the day broke, Said some of the best things we ever said. That telescope was christened the Star-splitter, Because it didn't do a thing but split A star in two or three the way you split A globule of quicksilver in your hand…

36. Orion Constellation Clear New England Sky December 1947 Starry Night Backyard

37. 6” Clark Refractor Diffraction Limited Angular Resolution q = 2.5 x 105l/D (arcsecond)

38. Star Splitter Robert Frost 1923 1802 A.D. William Herschel shows many double stars are binaries. January 31, 1862, while testing the lens of the Dearborn Telescope, Alvan Graham discovered the faint companion (a white dwarf) to Sirius. The German astronomer Bessel, years before had predicted this companion from the wobbling motion of that brightest star in the sky. 

39. THE POETRY OF ANN AND JANE TAYLOR 1782-1866 1783-1824 These sisters were well known poem and hymn writers who lived in Stockwell Street, Colchester

40. The Star Ann and Jane Taylor 1806 Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are ! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. When the blazing sun is gone, When she nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

41. Then the trav'ller in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark, He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so. In the dark blue sky you keep, And often thro' my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky. 'Tis your bright and tiny spark, Lights the trav'ller in the dark : Tho' I know not what you are, Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

42. The Star Ann and Jane Taylor 1806 Starlight is actually too faint to light your path; however, celestial navigation has been very useful to explorers. Possibly, there seems to be a subtle reference to the Star of Bethlehem guiding the weary travelers. The atmosphere bends the light of stars, distant points of light; the turbulence in the upper atmosphere causes a constant shimmering (scintillation)- stars twinkle. Planets are much closer; their reflected light is randomized. This smoothes-out any twinkle.

43. THE POETRY OF LORD BYRON (George Gordon) 1788-1824 A poetic chronicle of travels and thoughts of a wayward, wild, immoral youth who grows weary of his ways and seeks to gain a surer foothold on life by traveling to Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Baltics. Reflects on the fierce culture of the Albanians and the past glory of Greece, on Waterloo and Napoleon in Belgium, on the Alps, the Rhine and the battles fought there.

44. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven, If in your bright leaves we could read the fate Of men and empires-'tis to be forgiven That, in our aspirations to be great, Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state And claim a kindred with you: for ye are A beauty and a mystery, and create In us such love and reverence from afar, That fortune, fame, power, life have named Themselves a star. (Canto III, part lxxxviii)

45. THE POETRY OF JOHN KEATS 1795-1821 John Keats was born in 1795 in Moorfields, England, the son of a stableman. His father died when John was eight, his mother died of tuberculosis when He was fourteen. At fifteen, apprenticed as an apothecary-surgeon. Soon after, John left the medical field to focus primarily on poetry, inspired by Shakespeare. Few poets ascend to the level of John Keats. He was 26 when he died of tuberculosis, He was considered, along with Wordsworth, to be the Romantic poet of the 19th century. "When I have fears that I may cease to be" is an expression of Keats's melancholy. When he wrote this poem, he was still quite sick and it was obvious that his ill-health was not improving. As a consequence, he developed a negative outlook on life. He expressed himself with the following poem, one I consider to be among his finest.

46. BRIGHT STAR John Keats 1819 Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art--           Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night, And watching, with eternal lids apart,           Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task           Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask           Of snow upon the mountains and the moors- No-yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,           Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,           Awake forever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,           And so live ever-or else swoon to death.

47. THE POETRY OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 1807-1882 First great American poet. A master of metrical verse- he favored hexameters. “It is a curious of fact of looking through the telescope to make one feel warm in a cold night; that is, to forget the body wholly. The souls seems to exert its supremacy and to walk among the stars.” (January 5, 1848 Journal entry concerning the Great Telescope at Harvard)

48. THE LIGHT OF STARS Longfellow 1838 The night is come, but not too soon; And sinking silently, All silently, the little moon Drops down behind the sky. There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars; And the first watch of night is given To the red planet Mars. Is it the tender star of love? The star of love and dreams? O no! from that blue tent above, A hero's armor gleams.

49. And earnest thoughts within me rise, When I behold afar, Suspended in the evening skies, The shield of that red star. O star of strength! I see thee stand And smile upon my pain; Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand, And I am strong again. Within my breast there is no light But the cold light of stars; I give the first watch of the night To the red planet Mars.

50. The star of the unconquered will, He rises in my breast, Serene, and resolute, and still, And calm, and self-possessed. And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art, That readest this brief psalm, As one by one thy hopes depart, Be resolute and calm. O fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know ere long, Know how sublime a thing it is To suffer and be strong.