(source)
|
John Savery
(4 Nov 1832 - 18 May 1910)
American poet who lived his early life on a farm. After some years in various occupations and some travel, he pursued his self-described “bookish tastes” and became a librarian.
|
Science Quotes by John Savery (4 quotes)
Now come the minstrels of the swamp and pool,
The peeping frogs who make the marshes ring
At sundown like some myriad-squeaking thing!
Thus with our senses Nature plays the fool.
The peeping frogs who make the marshes ring
At sundown like some myriad-squeaking thing!
Thus with our senses Nature plays the fool.
— John Savery
In 'Peeping Frogs', Memorial Volume: Selections from the Prose and Poetical Writings of the Late John Savary (1912), 57.
Our world depends for daily bread
Upon the shooting of a seed.
Upon the shooting of a seed.
— John Savery
In 'A Corner in Wheat', Memorial Volume: Selections from the Prose and Poetical Writings of the Late John Savary (1912), 44. The quoted lines begin the first stanza, which ends similarly: “Upon the shooting of a seed
Our world depends for daily bread.”
Our world depends for daily bread.”
What makes the beauty of this flower which blows?
Not nourishing earth, nor air, nor heaven’s blue,
Nor sun, nor soil, nor the translucent dew;
But that which held in combination grows
Whole in each part, and perfect at the close.
Chemist nor botanist no more than you
Can see that pure necessity wherethrough
Beauty is born—a rose within the rose.
Not nourishing earth, nor air, nor heaven’s blue,
Nor sun, nor soil, nor the translucent dew;
But that which held in combination grows
Whole in each part, and perfect at the close.
Chemist nor botanist no more than you
Can see that pure necessity wherethrough
Beauty is born—a rose within the rose.
— John Savery
In 'A Rose', Memorial Volume: Selections from the Prose and Poetical Writings of the Late John Savary (1912), 41. The quoted lines begin the first stanza, which ends similarly: “Upon the shooting of a seed
Our world depends for daily bread.”
Our world depends for daily bread.”
What shall be done with nature to reclaim
The herbless, treeless waste? those dead seas past,
Dried summer lands, deserts and “antres vast,”
The earth’s reproach, her barrenness and shame.
Can human toil and foresight help the same?
Science, of soils declares with grand forecast,
Last shall be first, and first shall be the last
To come to fruit in Irrigation’s name!
The herbless, treeless waste? those dead seas past,
Dried summer lands, deserts and “antres vast,”
The earth’s reproach, her barrenness and shame.
Can human toil and foresight help the same?
Science, of soils declares with grand forecast,
Last shall be first, and first shall be the last
To come to fruit in Irrigation’s name!
— John Savery
In 'Arid Lands', Poems of Expansion (1898), 108.
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) -- 
