Addressed to Science: Poetry, Personification and Metaphor

Poems addressed to Science provide a notable history of response to structures of universal explanation and technological results. The personification of Science within these texts provides a unique perspective on changing attitudes to Science as an intellectual, religious and cultural force. From Enlightenment optimism regarding the possibility of discovering a first cause, to nineteenth century doubt and the formal responses of twentieth century poets to particle physics and cosmology, poems addressed to Science as a distinct methodology and worldview provide a sub-genre which illuminates both poetic and scientific history. This paper analyses a selection of poems and their metaphorical operations, in order to clarify changing priorities and practices, and reflect on criticism’s limits of explanation in this area.