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Science and poetry, friends after all

2/28/2018

It is interesting that what may be one the best insights into the nature of poetry was written by a theoretical physicist, Paul Dirac. He said, "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." It’s certainly true that the task of science is to gather data, discern how they relate, and provide workable paradigms for the complexity of what we call reality. More simply, science tells people what they don't know in a way they can understand.
Then Dirac goes on to claim that poetry is "the exact opposite.” At first I took this to mean that poetry tells people what they have always known, but in a way they can't understand. His statement seemed to say that it was a literary form that intentionally restates what we already know, but makes it more confusing by putting it in highly figurative language. In short, science explains, poetry obscures.
However, as I thought about it, I began to see that he may not have been putting down poetry at all, but saying something very important about it. I realized that what at first seemed to be a negative regard, may well have been the exact opposite. It could be that while science seeks to clarify, poetry uses a different language that takes us behind the obvious to see the "data" of life in a different way. I began to understand that while science explains for functional purposes, poetry "confuses" for artistic purposes. They are the "exact opposite" in method, but in method only. Both methods reveal truth, but in two different ways and for two different purposes. Science is functional; poetry embraces the larger context of life that lies outside the test tube.
Certainly, both are necessary. Getting to the library is, in a sense, a scientific endeavor. One has to be consider such things as distance, time, weather, possibility of interruption, to say nothing – if I’m allowed a big of levity– of the validity of the coordinate system being used. On the other hand, to experience meaning – once you get there and have settled down with a good book – calls for the use of metaphors, which by definition lie outside the realm of science. Getting to the library is impossible apart from some understanding of our material world, but it provides no reason why we should go there. Poetry would like you to put the precision of science on hold for a moment and move instinctively to why you wanted to go there in the first place. Poetry would free you from the limitations of the material, in order to take you via the imagination to some sudden insight into the “whys” of life.
William Blake, the 19th century English poet wrote, “Sweet sleep with soft down, weave thy brows an infant crown” (from A Cradle Song). Today’s scientific mind may well appreciate the insights of poetry, but find it impossible to quantify them. Science and poetry each have their goals, but for me, at this stage of life, the great sweeping generalities, as penned by a poet, are what bring me the greatest satisfaction.

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