It's a fresh week of poeming! And today's prompt is an idea of what to write about: a scientific instrument. This could be any kind of scientific instrument: ones from astronomy, like telescopes, astrolables, orreries; ones for weather, like barometers, thermometers; ones for navigation, like compasses; ones you'd find in modern laboratories or ancient apothecaries...
If you want a list to get your mind mulling it over, here's the Wiki list sorted into categories and here's a breaktakingly extensive list of 418 instruments + their uses. Personally, I love the older instruments, especially astrolabes, so here's a wonderfully rich resource for that. The Oxford History of Science Museum has explanations and short videos on 8 different kinds of instruments in their collection: armillary sphere, camera obscura, gregorian telescope, medicine chest, octant, orrery, wimshurst machine. So if you fancy five minutes of discovery first, choose which one you fancy, read the text about it, watch the little video, and then settle into turning that discovery into a poem:
You could write this as free verse or, if you fancy a type of poem to write, how about a villanelle?
| Line # | Repeated line | Rhyme |
| 1 | A | a |
| 2 | xxxxx | b |
| 3 | B | a |
| |
|
|
| 4 | xxxxx | a |
| 5 | xxxxx | b |
| 6 | A | a |
| |
|
|
| 7 | xxxxx | a |
| 8 | xxxxx | b |
| 9 | B | a |
| |
|
|
| 10 | xxxxx | a |
| 11 | xxxxx | b |
| 12 | A | a |
| |
|
|
| 13 | xxxxx | a |
| 14 | xxxxx | b |
| 15 | B | a |
| |
|
|
| 16 | xxxxx | a |
| 17 | xxxxx | b |
| 18 | B | a |
| 19 | B | a |
- Stanza length: The first five stanza are 3 lines each; the last stanza is 4 lines
- Rhyme scheme: the first four stanzas are aba; the last stanza is abaa.
- Repeating lines: The table shows where the two repeating lines go, that's A and B. They can have slight variations, changing words or tweaking punctuation, so the meaning shifts throughout the poem. Read the example further down, to see how it works.
Practical tip: When you’re writing a villanelle (or any repeating form), it helps to mark out the structure in your notebook, and each time you write a line that will repeat, jot it down in the places where it’ll repeat. You can always tweak the wording and punctuation when you get to it, but it’s much easier to write if you can see what lines you’re heading towards, instead of trying to hold it in your head.
Here's a villanelle I wrote about the Museum of Science, with the repeated lines marked:
So many devices, copper and brass, to divine
the movements of planets, celestial angles, and time.
Trajectories of hearts and whether your love will align
again, its eliptical orbit completed, with mine
are hardly more complex? They built, drawing metal from grime,
so many devices, copper and brass, to divine
the shape of the oceans by peering down holes for the shine
of a singular star. Is it harder to plot out the prime
trajectories of hearts and whether my love will align
with yours as it swings into view? I’ve been stiffened with brine,
my ship lost at sea; I’ve been trying, through gathering rime,
so many devices, copper and brass, to divine
the path of your vanishing love, its return, and the sign
if it’s comet or star: Enlightenment’s cool paradigm.
Trajectories of hearts and whether a love will align
are surely the stuff of academies; measures define
Newtonian laws. I polish, through rhyme after rhyme,
so many devices, copper and brass, to divine
trajectories of hearts, and whether our love will align.
The Meddling with Poetry course explores a host of different poetry forms as well as the musicality of language, poetic imagery, and other aspects of the poetic. It's 8 weeks long, one evening a week, and absolute beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. You can read more details and book a place here.
