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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE MATHEMATICIAN by NELSON ANTRIM CRAWFORD

First Line: STRANGER ALIKE TO TRAFFIC'S CLAMOR CRUDE
Last Line: AND IN A GRAPH HE FINDS ETERNITY.
Subject(s): MATHEMATICS;

Stranger alike to traffic's clamor crude
And to joy's throbbing, intricate design,
He stands serene. A formula, a line,
With changeless beauty is by him endued.
Striver for truth's perfection, no light mood
May move him. Differential, axiom, sign,
Bring to him glimpses of the far divine,
Marking the boundaries of finitude.

By Euclid's theorems cramped, he seeks new spheres,
And walks in high, far ways forever free,
Toils with awed vision through the ordered years,
Till, from the all-but-handled harmony,
In some grave vision Deity appears,
And in a graph he finds Eternity.



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