October 15, 2024
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Poem “Alfred Wegener to the World”
Science learned through meter and poetry
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Edited by Dava Sobel
And yet it moves! Shhh, can you hear the mountain murmuring?
Peripatetic grassland slowly creeps
all over the world. there is no terra firma.
Is it that bad? must be protected
Creating new and updated versions
of all atlases. But it’s no one’s fault
Continents collide or split apart.
Ride on groaning granite and basalt sleds;
Coastline advances on transoceanic mission
Like a runner in the world’s most boring race
(Although it is slow, it will definitely cover the ground)
And somehow, stilltheir clips are beyond pace
A stubborn scholar comes
Ask for evidence and change your position.
Author’s note: Wegener was an early proponent of the theory of continental drift, but this theory initially met with resistance.
