How cool is that—a short poem for every element, literarily excellent, with fun titles like Rocket Man, Balloon Boy, The Mini Power Pack, Nobel Yet Shy, along with great illustrations! I think it’s a fantastic way to celebrate chemistry, enjoy learning it, and remember fascinating stories in a playful way.
A Five-Line Poem For Each Element
Peter Davern is a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He wrote a five-line poem for each element that describes certain properties, uses, or quirky facts about that element. He published a book where each poem is accompanied by an explanation of the meaning of each line [1]. There are also notes on how to pronounce certain parts of the poems, such as chemical formulas, to ensure the correct rhythm and meter of the poem.
I asked Peter Davern how he came up with the idea of writing poems about elements. “I guess the poems helped me to remember some of those quirky elemental facts.”, he said and continues: “I believe it also improved the quality of my teaching.” I can fully relate to both.
Learning About the Elements
Do you remember how you learned about the elements and their properties? Or are you a student currently learning this?
Back in my days as a student, we read a thick standard textbook with ultra-thin pages. Small print, element by element: occurrence, production, properties, uses, and compounds. Everything was in there, along with countless footnotes.
For a newcomer trying to read the book cover to cover, these footnotes held surprising fun facts—like that the phrase “Three quarks for pattern-marking!” from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce inspired physicist Murray Gell-Mann to name the fundamental particles of matter quarks. Since these facts weren’t in the index, you had to remember where you found them when wanting to share them with other students. Interestingly, that was often easier than remembering some other details …
Nowadays, this and other textbooks are much better designed didactically, and there are far more learning resources available. Still, poems in chemistry are quite a rarity. So why does one write poetry as a chemist?
Why Writing Poems?—From Beer to OMG
At first, I thought it was maybe almost natural to write poems, even as a chemist, when living in Limerick. It might well be, since Peter Davern is a great linguistic talent. His story begins with cufflinks, beer, and science outreach and continues with great enthusiasm that is truly infectious.
“I was once the proud owner of a pair of rectangular white cufflinks decorated in crisp black print with the names, symbols, atomic numbers, and atomic weights of beryllium and erbium. They occasionally proved a great conversation starter when out socially because with my wrists held together they spelled the word BeEr.”
A great idea to steer a conversation towards chemistry. However, good science outreach needs stories and preparation. Peter Davern continues: “Sadly, I must concede that the conversations often fizzled as I was unable to follow up my initial flourish with any memorable quirky facts or trivia about either element. At the time this was a slightly disconcerting realization—I was supposed to be a chemist, after all; and what’s more, an educator! I therefore committed to learning more about the chemical elements, and in no time I was hooked.” [2]
He says that in the end he spent about five years collecting interesting and quirky facts about the elements and creating the poems. “For each element in its turn, I jotted down the interesting and quirky facts on Post-its and odd bits of notepaper. Then, over the following couple of weeks or so, I mulled things over in my head as I cycled the path along the river Shannon out to the University of Limerick and back, or when I was in the car, or out walking the dog, and tried to blend some of these facts/properties into the five-line AABBA format.”, he remembers. And I remember that a limerick consists of five lines and follows the AABBA rhyme scheme. Edward Lear (1812–1888) was one of the first limerick poets. Of course, not about chemistry.
Peter Davern didn’t think it would take him so long. But 93 short poems—one for each of the 92 elements from hydrogen to uranium, plus one additional poem covering the 26 elements that follow uranium—is quite a lot. And I think you can really tell the poems reflect his lasting enthusiasm.
It seems he has passed that enthusiasm on to those around him as well. “My two kids got in on the act, with my son coming up with the initial idea for the book’s cover (for a small fee!) based on a photo of some element biscuits my daughter made for me, and my daughter also pitched in with a few of the early illustrations.” I wonder if the children have a favorite poem that they can recite by heart?
Anyway, after such an intense study of the elements, he with no doubt has enough interesting stories to tell for every element to fascinate his students and non-chemistry party guests. So, a happy ending, even for his cufflink story.
Well, yes, but different from what you thought: “As for my BeEr cufflinks, sadly I lost Be, and therefore switched to a similarly-styled pair depicting oxygen and magnesium instead. So now when out socially I can hold my wrists aloft whenever my friends come out with something truly startling—OMg (OMG, Oh my God, that’s amazing!). And now, at least, I can back up my display of amazement with details of how ozone is generated by lightning storms and photocopiers alike, and how magnesium, once ignited, burns relentlessly with a camera-flash brightness that is extremely difficult to extinguish.” [2]
A Favorite Poem?
I asked Peter Davern if he has a favorite poem among his 93 poems. His answer is very clever: “One of my own favorite poems is ‘Antimony’ because of the element’s importance to the origin of the ‘printed word,’ as explained in the poem’s last line.”
I could now let this remain a teaser to encourage your curiosity and make you buy the book … The final line of the poem reads:
“Help’d newshounds print their hard-edg’d facts; in match heads… take a bow!” [1]
And the explanation in the book for this line states:
“[newshounds: noun, plural (slang) — newspaper reporters]
Molten antimony expands slightly as it solidifies while cooling. This property, known since ancient times, enhances the sharpness and definition of objects cast from antimony. Something similar also happens when casting metal alloys containing antimony. Antimony’s inclusion (along with a little tin) in a lead alloy provided the hard, crisp, and durable definition of the moveable letterforms used in Johann Guttenberg’s innovative 15th century printing press. How well would humankind have progressed between then and now without the clarity and sharpness that antimony helped to bring to the printed word?
Antimony sulfide is also found in the heads of some brands of safety matches, where it helps the match head burn more vigorously.
All in all, it’s quite an interesting little element! Take a bow antimony!” [1]
My favorite poem is ‘Iridium‘—not least because of the great illustration with the dinosaur you can see below 😊.
References
[1] Peter Davern, From Arsenic to Zirconium – Poems and Surprising Facts about the Elements, No Starch Press, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA, 2020. ISBN-13: 978-1-7185-0027-3
[2] Peter Davern, Engage your students with elemental facts, The Science Teacher 2020, 88(2), 8–9. (US National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) journal)
Also of Interest
Poem: IRIDIUM – What of the Dinosaurs?
What do dinosaurs have to do with iridium? Blending science with poetry, Peter Davern explains in five lines what makes this element unique and exciting
