Worlds Poem by Richard Wilbur

Worlds

Rating: 4.6


For Alexander there was no Far East,
Because he thought the Asian continent
India ended. Free Cathay at least
Did not contribute to his discontent.

But Newton, who had grasped all space, was more
Serene. To him it seemed that he'd but played
With several shells and pebbles on the shore
Of that profundity he had not made.

Swiss Einstein with his relativity -
Most secure of all. God does not play dice
With the cosmos and its activity.
Religionless equations won't suffice.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Susan Williams 01 January 2016

Mankind's hard-earned knowledge still isn't all we need to know and definitely not all there is to know.

21 0 Reply
Ratnakar Mandlik 01 January 2016

Different perceptions of the world by different backgrounds beautifully elaborated. Enjoyed the poem. Thanks for sharing.10 points.

0 0 Reply
Fabrizio Frosini 01 January 2016

a good write, indeed.. about Einstein, better specifying he was a German-born (in Ulm,1879) , who lived part of his life, when young, in Swiss [he studied at the Polytechnic in Zürich, and (in 1896, aged 17) he renounced his citizenship in the German Kingdom of Württemberg to avoid military service]. Einstein was appointed lecturer at the University of Bern in 1908 and associate professor at the University of Zurich in 1909. Then, in April 1911, he accepted Austrian citizenship in the Austro-Hungarian empire to become full professor at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. Again, from 1912 until 1914, he was professor of theoretical physics at the ETH Zurich. In 1914, he returned to the German Empire after being appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (1914–1932) and a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He soon became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and in 1916 was appointed president of the German Physical Society (1916–1918) . In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Finally, in February 1933, while on a visit to the United States, Einstein knew he could not return to Germany with the rise to power of the Nazis under Germany's new chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

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