RPO -- Robert Fuller Murray : The Delights of Mathematics

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Robert Fuller Murray (1863-1894)

The Delights of Mathematics

1It seems a hundred years or more

2 Since I, with note-book, ink and pen,

3In cap and gown, first trod the floor

4 Which I have often trod since then;

5Yet well do I remember when

6 With fifty other fond fanatics,

7I sought delights beyond my ken,

8 The deep delights of Mathematics.

9I knew that two and two made four,

10 I felt that five times two were ten,

11But, as for all profounder lore,

12 The robin redbreast or the wren,

13The sparrow, whether cock or hen,

14 Knew quite as much about Quadratics,

15Was less confused by x and n,

16 The deep delights of Mathematics.

17The Asses' Bridge I passed not o'er,

18 I floundered in the noisome fen

19Which lies behind it and before;

20 I wandered in the gloomy glen

21Where Surds and Factors have their den.

22 But when I saw the pit of Statics,

23I said Good-bye, Farewell, Amen!

24 The deep delighst of Mathematics.

25O Bejants! blessed, beardless men,

26 Who strive with Euclid in your attics,

27For worlds I would not taste again

28 The deep delights of Mathematics.

Notes

14] Quadratics: quadratic equations, a field in algebra.

17] The Asses' Bridge: "Pons Asinorum: a humorous name now given to the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid's Elements" (OED, "ass").

21] Surds: "irrational" numbers, quantities that cannot be expressed in finite terms.
Factors: for example, numbers that divide into another number.

22] Statics: a branch of physics that deals with "the action of forces in producing equilibrium or relative rest" (OED).

25] Bejants: first-year undergraduates at St. Andrews' University.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: R. F. Murray, The Scarlet Gown: Being Verses by a St. Andrews Man, 2nd edn., intro. by Andrew Lang (Glasgow: James MacLehose, 1909): 75-76. LE M9837sc Robarts Library
First publication date: 1891
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2001
Recent editing: 1:2002/10/5

Rhyme: ababbcbc ... bcbc

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