Sooo . . . XS Clerihews (*) on Astronomers
Ptolemy wrote the best
early sci-fi. His Almagest
taught - for what it's worth -
that the Sun goes round the Earth.
Copernicus (a Pole)
said "Rubbish! On the whole
a year would be more fun
if the Earth went round the Sun."
Kepler read the stars.
The orbit of Mars
looked all wrong. He found
it was egg-shaped, not round.
Tycho Brahe we are led to suppose
had a silver nose.
Perhaps that looked cuter, but how cruel
to lose your hooter in a duel.
Galileo Galilei
lived to rue the day he
dropped his balls from a tower
to see which one fell slower. (Ouch!)
And when Isaac Newton
fell off his fouton
he was charged with depravity
for blaming it on Gravity.
Albert Einstein, Esquire
had one straightforward desire -
to not rest content
till he'd proved Space was bent.
Whereas Edwin Hubble
thought of Space as a bubble.
Expansion would not stop
till the Universe went Pop!
Moonwalker Armstrong
sang this lunar swan-song.
"A giant leap for Mankind
if I leave Buzz Aldrin behind."
Professor Brian Cox
says the Universe rocks!
"There are billions and billions
of galaxies, flat ones and hilly ones."
(*) Four line quatrains, rhymed aabb, irregular metre and line length, allegedly originated by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. We forgive you, Edmund.
Posted for the Poetry Bus, of April 25th, heroically driven for a second week by NanU, her prompt being "Excess"
Now there's cosmic adventure for you. Always room for another zany idea.
ReplyDeleteEducational and oddly arhythmic...
ReplyDeletePearl
The irregular element in your poem rocks ... I was spirited away to another realm.
ReplyDeleteIf all astronomy lectures could be this much fun, I may have paid more attention! Now could you explain quantum mechanics please?
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this ! very tidy for an out- of -orbit, kind of Pop! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI found this depraved in its wickedness. You prove yourself a master yet again.
ReplyDeleteIt boggles the mind - both this interesting form and the idea of all those galaxies. I wonder if the life forms on the other planets have more sense than we do?
ReplyDeleteSome of those rhymes make me want to curl up and die. Galilei / day he, Newton / fouton and the final parting billions / hilly ones.
ReplyDeleteClerihews sound so odd they always remind me of William McGonagle, who always believed he wrote perfectly paced verse.
Peter G . . . specially for you.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Topaz MacGonagall
remarked "Never shall
it be loudly said in a stentorian roar
that my peculiar poesy is not better than Henry Moore."
Lolamouse . . .
Quantum Mechanics is easily explained!
If something's very VERY small
it likely isn't there at all.
Or it might be, You are never sure.
That's quantum theory's chief allure.
Schrodinger's cat was FAR TOO BIG
Puss really didn't give a fig.
It slept in its box when Erwin said
"It sometimes alive and sometimes dead?"
I think it's time to draw the curtain.
Q.T insists that all's uncertain.
Everyone else . . . thank you, thank you for your kind comments.
You made science fun and funny.
ReplyDeleteI just loved this -- fun and funny and clever!
ReplyDeleteReally? Tycho Brahe had a silver nose?
ReplyDeleteI though only coke abusers
ended up with those.
Nice one - entertaining, and fun.
Padhraig . . Google "Tycho Brahe's Nose" for the horrid details.
ReplyDeleteWow - impressing! By the way: Albert Einstein lived around the corner here in the Bavarian Quarter in Berlin
ReplyDeleteWell this post is much more entertaining than the 'Wedding' which is going on at the moment.
ReplyDeleteVery very funny and clever. If you think the Queen of Corruption is trying to seduce you, you're absolutely right!Food one Footsie.
Let's just now get it out of the way that your quatrains are spot on! Beyond that, I'm amazed at your knowledge of the history of space! How are you buying that all space was once the size of a marble you could hold in your hand and then blew up and expanded into infinity?!:)
ReplyDeleteProfessor Brian Cox
ReplyDeletesays the Universe rocks!
"There are billions and billions
of galaxies, flat ones and hilly ones."
This is SO true ...
I am living on a flat one and I miss the hills.
Bravo! What a jewel to find in the ether so late at night. There is yet hope for us.
ReplyDelete