Poetry inspired by mathematics: a brief journey through history

Abstract

This article explores one of the many manifestations of the link between mathematics and poetry—the phenomenon of poetry inspired by mathematics. Such poetry responds to the mathematical concerns and accomplishments of the day. Covering a variety of time periods and mathematical subjects, the selection of poems in this article takes the reader on a journey through the history of mathematics, highlighting along the way mathematical ideas and achievements that inspired both mathematicians and poets. We conclude with a brief discussion on the use of such poetry in the mathematics classroom.

Keywords:

• mathematical poetry
• mathematical pedagogy
• history of mathematics

AMS Subject Classifications::

• 01A99
• 97-03
• 97D99
• 97U99

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges permissions to reprint from authors, translators, publishers and universities, as follows: Tom Apostol for ‘Where Are the Zeros of Zeta of s?’; Ted Munger for ‘With an Integer Greater than 2’; Jeremy Teitelbaum for ‘We Take an Elliptic Curve E’; Jonathan Coulton for excerpt from ‘Mandelbrot Set’; Hans Magnus Enzensberger for excerpt from ‘Homage to Gödel’; Sandra M. Gilbert for ‘He Explains the Book Proof’; Emily Grosholz for excerpt from ‘Reflections on the Transfinite’; Lawrence Mark Lesser for ‘Hotel Infinity’; Michael Zahniser for ‘A Linear Algebra Sonnet’; Michael L. Johnson for ‘M.C. Escher Circle Limit III’; Rodrigo Siqueira for ‘The Cantor Dust’; Richard Sieburth for excerpt from ‘Parallels (I)’ by Eugene Guillevic; Jacob L. Dahl, Project Director, ETCSL for excerpt from ‘The Herds of Nanna’© 1998-2006 J.A. Black, G. Cunningham, J. Ebeling, E. Fluckiger-Hawker, E. Robson, J. Taylor & G. Zolyomi, The ETCSL, Oxford; Princeton University Press for the poem excerpt ‘Solving the Cubic’ by Niccolò Tartaglia, from ‘The Story of Mathematics’ by Richard Mankiewicz© 2000 by Richard Mankiewicz, Princeton University Press, and Cassell & Co., a division of Orion; and the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York for excerpt from ‘Boolean Algebra: X² = X′ by William Bronk.

In addition, the author thanks Stuart Sidney, Gary Greenfield, Saeed Ghahramani, and the anonymous referee for suggestions that improved the presentation of this article.