Brian Reed Astronomy 190: Cosmologies and Cultures February 5, 2018

How Poets Think “Rhetoric” matters more than “truth.” It matters more how one writes than what one writes. Falsifiability is irrelevant. Imagination is supreme. Ideas are used in the service of art. Instead of seeking to reveal patterns in the external world one aspires to create patterned language.

The Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century The scientific method received its first formulation in the works of Robert Bacon and Rene Descartes. Great advances were made in the fields of anatomy (William Harvey), astronomy (Kepler and Galileo), chemistry (Robert Boyle), optics (Christiaan Huyghens), and much else.

Isaac Newton (1642-1726) In 1687, Isaac Newton published the Principia, which set forth his three laws of motion and his universal theory of gravitation. “Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; / God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.”

“A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687” John Dryden (1631-1700) John Dryden, “A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687”

John Dryden (1631-1700) An English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of late 17th century England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden.

John Dryden: What’s a Poet to Do? Three competing sources of authority: The Christian Bible Classical Antiquity The New Science

From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony This universal frame began. “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony         This universal frame began.        When Nature underneath a heap                Of jarring atoms lay,       And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high,                Arise ye more than dead.

Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,        In order to their stations leap,                And music's pow'r obey. From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony                This universal frame began:                From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran,        The diapason closing full in man.

Christian Bible & Sacred History GENESIS: God creates the universe over the course of six day and rests on the seventh. BOOK OF REVELATION: after the Second Coming is the Last Judgment and the end of the world.

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Lucretius was a Roman philosopher and poet who lived in the 1st century BCE. His masterpiece is the philosophical epic De Rerum Natura (“On the Nature of Things”). Dryden published translations of selections from De Rerum Natura in 1685.

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Lucretius is known as the great exponent of atomism in the Classical world. He argues that the universe covers an infinitude of space and consists entirely of matter and void. All matter is composed of imperishable atoms, tiny indivisible particles that can neither be created or destroyed.

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Lucretius teaches that the universe is an ongoing cosmic event - a never-ending binding and unbinding of atoms resulting in the gradual emergence of entire new worlds and the gradual disintegration of old ones. Our world, our bodies, our minds are but atoms in motion.

From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony This universal frame began. “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony         This universal frame began.       

From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony This universal frame began. “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony         This universal frame began.        When Nature underneath a heap                Of jarring atoms lay,       And could not heave her head,

From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony This universal frame began. “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony         This universal frame began.        When Nature underneath a heap                Of jarring atoms lay,       And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high,                Arise ye more than dead.

When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687”        When Nature underneath a heap                Of jarring atoms lay,       And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high,                Arise ye more than dead. Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,        In order to their stations leap,                And music's pow'r obey.

From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony This universal frame began: “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony                This universal frame began:                From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran,        The diapason closing full in man.

Stanza #1: Creation of Universe Stanza #2: Creation of Human Music “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” Stanza #1: Creation of Universe Stanza #2: Creation of Human Music Stanzas #3-5: Secular Music & the Passions Stanza #6: Sacred Music Stanza #7: Secular v. Sacred Music

“A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687” As from the pow'r of sacred lays          The spheres began to move, And sung the great Creator's praise          To all the bless'd above; So when the last and dreadful hour    This crumbling pageant shall devour, The trumpet shall be heard on high,          The dead shall live, the living die,          And music shall untune the sky

What Good Are Poets? The “given” world does not trap the imagination. Elegance and pattern are persuasive—not just clarity. They remind us of the power of metaphor and figurative language more generally. Creation is ongoing. Every poem is a new world.

Brian Reed Email: bmreed@uw.edu Twitter: @bmreeduw Web: http://faculty.washington.edu/bmreed/