To Look on Beauty Bare: Mathematics as Metaphor in Poetry
Shanna Dobson and E. R. Lutken

Proceedings of Bridges 2024: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture
Pages 581–586
Workshop Papers

Abstract

Mathematics is an excellent source of metaphor in poetry. Its capacity to express difficult ideas succinctly can be employed in the structure or language of a poem. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to several examples of mathematics as metaphor in these different capacities. Participants will first explore structure as metaphor, then write poems with two different structural patterns. They will write poems using the constraint of the Fibonacci Sequence, and secondly, poems reflected around a vertical axis. In the third exercise, sample poems with mathematical metaphors within the text will be discussed. Then participants will create poems with metaphors of their own choosing. These exercises can easily be adapted for use in the classroom.

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