Because I wondered what things had been thrice attenuated, Fate and Google led me to Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics Sarah Glaz, Joanne Growney 2008, Mathematics isbn 1439865183 And I remembered how it was to fall in love With a number, with a number theorist, With poetry. Such a spell. ... I still wonder about those thrice attentuated shades. Thing[shade] / y / y / y Why? Hilarie
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:08:21 -0400 From: James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> Subject: [math-fun] Mathematical Enchantments ... I'll close with a poem by Clarence Wylie whose final line compresses into ten syllables a surprisingly large chunk of what I'll be trying to convey in these many dozens of blog posts:
PARADOX
Not truth, nor certainty. These I forswore In my novitiate, as young men called To holy orders must abjure the world. "If ..., then ...," this only I assert; And my successes are but pretty chains Linking twin doubts, for it is vain to ask If what I postulate be justified Or what I prove possess the stamp of fact. Yet bridges stand, and men no longer crawl In two dimensions. And such triumphs stem In no small measure from the power this game, Played with the thrice attenuated shades Of things, has over their originals. How frail the wand, but how profound the spell!