Monday, December 22, 2008
Tycho Brahe (poem)
Tycho Brahe
Think of it.
He was Danish
and an astronomer
and he had a golden nose.
He went rummaging
about in the heavens
looking
for the truth of things.
One star after another,
his daily bread,
meticulous measurements,
careful notes.
What did it matter
that his nose
had been lost
in a duel,
that he did not have
the proper instruments
for his task,
that he lived in a time
when many scorned
those such as he,
those with their heads
in the clouds
when they should
be out plowing the fields,
tending their young.
He kept on searching,
certain that the secret
was there,
that he would find it,
make it his
with his naked eye.
Think of it.
He was Danish
and an astronomer
and he had a golden nose.
He went rummaging
about in the heavens
looking
for the truth of things.
One star after another,
his daily bread,
meticulous measurements,
careful notes.
What did it matter
that his nose
had been lost
in a duel,
that he did not have
the proper instruments
for his task,
that he lived in a time
when many scorned
those such as he,
those with their heads
in the clouds
when they should
be out plowing the fields,
tending their young.
He kept on searching,
certain that the secret
was there,
that he would find it,
make it his
with his naked eye.
Dorothy Walters
December 21, 2008
Notes: The astronomer Tycho Brahe ( 1546-1601) had lost part of his nose in a dueling mishap when he was young, so he made himself a false nosepiece out of metal, perhaps bronze covered in gold. Working before the invention of the telescope, he made an exhaustive visual search of the movements of the heavenly bodies, to try to determine whether the earth or the sun was the center of the universe. Although his theories were later superseded by others, he is recognized for his major contribution to early astronomical readings and computations.
Like many other investigators of his time, he explored various realms (astronomy, astrology, alchemy, and herbal medicine).
