Science and Poetry

Abstract

Although the New Criticism encouraged a sharp distinction between the language of poetry and the language of science, it has increasingly been recognised that modernist poets took cognizance of scientific developments. What is harder to determine is the nature of the relationship. Science is often mentioned in contextualising introductions to modernism, but many such introductions give students a relatively superficial acquaintance with illustrious names. How can one help students to become knowledge producers rather than passive acquirers, in the face of the real and the perceived difficulties of science? Several problems need to be addressed: problems of the authority of science, problems of knowledge, and problems concerning what counts as knowledge. More mundanely, because the relevant prose texts are not always readily available, and some of the most interesting poets are not canonical, there are problems of resources. In what follows, I have assumed that seminars are the best environment for learning from this material. If lectures are offered in support, it is important that they leave scope for further discussion in seminars. The sometimes arcane nature of the material, and the intimidating authority of science, can leave students more than usually anxious that the poem is a puzzle with only one correct solution, not a space for imaginative exploration.