(source)
|
Alfred Noyes
(16 Sep 1880 - 25 Jun 1958)
English poet who published his first book of poetry, The Loom of Years, at age 21. His epic The Torch Bearers was published in three volumes (1922-1930), the first of which was Watchers of the Sky. These were inspired by a visit for the first trial of the new 100" telescope at Mount Wilson, California. He became England's poet laureate.
|
Science Quotes by Alfred Noyes (6 quotes)
Beware of old Linnaeus,
The Man of the Linden-tree,
So beautiful, bright and early
He brushed away the dews
He found the wicked wild-flowers
All courting there in twos.
The Man of the Linden-tree,
So beautiful, bright and early
He brushed away the dews
He found the wicked wild-flowers
All courting there in twos.
— Alfred Noyes
In 'Tycho Brahe', The Torch-Bearers: The Book of Earth (1925), Vol. 2, 174.
Did Newton, dreaming in his orchard there
Beside the dreaming Witham, see the moon
Burn like a huge gold apple in the boughs
And wonder why should moons not fall like fruit?
Beside the dreaming Witham, see the moon
Burn like a huge gold apple in the boughs
And wonder why should moons not fall like fruit?
— Alfred Noyes
In Watchers of the Sky (1922), 193-194.
Night after night, among the gabled roofs,
Climbing and creeping through a world unknown
Save to the roosting stork, he learned to find
The constellations, Cassiopeia’s throne,
The Plough still pointing to the Polar Star,
The movements of the planets, hours and hours,
And wondered at the mystery of it all.
Climbing and creeping through a world unknown
Save to the roosting stork, he learned to find
The constellations, Cassiopeia’s throne,
The Plough still pointing to the Polar Star,
The movements of the planets, hours and hours,
And wondered at the mystery of it all.
— Alfred Noyes
In 'Tycho Brahe', The Torch-Bearers: Watchers of the Sky (1922), Vol. 1, 40.
The story of scientific discovery has its own epic unity—a unity of purpose and endeavour—the single torch passing from hand to hand through the centuries; and the great moments of science when, after long labour, the pioneers saw their accumulated facts falling into a significant order—sometimes in the form of a law that revolutionised the whole world of thought—have an intense human interest, and belong essentially to the creative imagination of poetry.
— Alfred Noyes
In Prefactory Note, Watchers of the Sky (1922), v.
These rocks, these bones, these fossil forms and shells
Shall yet be touched with beauty and reveal
The secrets if the book of earth to man.
Shall yet be touched with beauty and reveal
The secrets if the book of earth to man.
— Alfred Noyes
In The Book of Earth (1925), 157.
Year after year, the slow sure records grow.
Awaiting their interpreter.
Awaiting their interpreter.
— Alfred Noyes
In Watchers of the Sky (1922), 253.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
