Science and Poetry

Forgive me while I take a writing break and post an old attempt at satire instead of writing a new one.  Here is today's prompt from NaPoWriMo Day 14:  

Today, I challenge you to write a parody or satire based on a famous poem. It can be long or short, rhymed or not. But take a favorite (or unfavorite) poem of the past, and see if you can’t re-write it on humorous, mocking, or sharp-witted lines.

In April 2012 I wrote:

I love this poem, but I am going to make a parody of it anyway!  Indeed, in parodying Poe’s romantic world view, I am also making fun of me.

           (1)            Edgar Allan Poe's SONNET TO SCIENCE        

    Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!

      Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

    Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,

      Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

    How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,

      Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering

    To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,

      Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?

    Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?

      And driven the Hamadryad from the wood

    To seek a shelter in some happier star?

      Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,

    The Elfin from the green grass, and from me

    The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

But in 2023, after years of seeing the effect of moneymaker science deniers rather than dreamy poets romancing, I see the parody as less a parody than a suggestion, less satire than serious. 

Science!  True Sister of Poetry thou art!

You nurture all being by opening eyes

And compliment modern poets’ hearts.

Don't white doves and airplanes need wings to fly?

Why should poets hate truth? Or how deem thee weird,

Who wouldst aid them in their questing

Throughout and beyond planets’ atmospheres?

How could they deny using thy virtual wings?

Hast thou not given God a place?

And driven out the Devil from the deep earth

So that inquiry and simile meet face to face?

Hast thou not found atoms in what was a dearth

Of matter, power in what was mere sun, and to me

Given insight into how denial mocks liberty?

                      Copyright © 2012 S.L. Chast, with 

tweaking by S.L. Chast 2023