The Will to Science

[dukealien]

The Will to Science


Edit1


  Will, to Science, is a supplicant,
Though oft we hear of Nature bent to will;
Researchers’ theories will the truth they want,
But Nature’s answers may affirm - or kill.

  Some pretend to research, but create,
Instead of listening, what they wish to hear;
They stitch false data, lest their theories’ fate
Prove ignominious, as they rightly fear.

  Nature can’t be forced: she must be wooed,
Respectfully, nor her consent assumed.
Each theory’s one love-letter: never brood
On its rejection.  Mend, where you presumed!

    But oh, the joy of Nature’s earned assent,
    Dissolving dread of disillusionment!

(snip)

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Archaisms, etc. are intentional (though not byond criticism) - Modified Shakespearean, as was Francis Bacon who invented science as we know it.

Your poem is good. I like that you stuck to your rhyming scheme A/B A/B. I think that at the beginning there is quite a bit of intellectualism with the use of "theories", "research", and "data". And then, in the end, you seem to actually personify nature, which seems to depart from your theme of science.

Maybe you could use a more apt title?

Thank you for the read and critique.  You raise an interesting point about the title:  it was originally the first four words of the first line, but I dropped "The" there while leaving it in the title.  Removing "The" from the title wouldn't make a great deal of difference, though, and what you're really suggesting is that the title misleads about the poem's program, or (in the rest of your critique) that the poem's program is inconsistent from top to bottom.

My program is, of course, to draw the reader into the metaphor of seeking truth as courting a lady of quality.  The second quatrain departs from this project to pursue one of my pet peeves about contemporary science (fake data, which can be constructed in a number of ways - running five surveys and only citing the one which shows an agreeable trend, "homogenizing" data to suggest your thesis is correct, etc.).  It really should be made clear how this is like intentinally mistaking the lady's response to proposals (not to say propositions) as favorable when they're not - a staple of farce, but potentially deadly in drug research.

This suggests how the middle of the sonnet could be improved.  The title could be changed to more effectively draw the reader in, so as to capture his suggestible attention for the final quatrain.  I'm not sure how to implement  either of these desiderata, but will think on them.  Thanks again for your critique!