Benzene
By Paul Board
Authors note...With sincere apologies to William Blake! -
Benzene! Benzene! Burning bright
Belching engines day and night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame Kekulé's symmetry?
Who'd have thought your Carbon Six
Could have produced such toxic tricks
Or provide the building blocks
For a plastic world (and cure the pox)?
Aesthetic, perfect aromatic
Substitutes produce chromatic
Dyes that brighten every day.
Thank you Mr Faraday.
Clothe our backs and cure our ills
Blow or dull our brains with pills
Ironic that your homologues
Pollute our land and stock our smogs
Benzene - your hydroxyl daughters
Need locking up, they pollute our waters
Adding chlorine provides persistence
(Target organs keep your distance).
Doubt Kekulé ever dreamt
Of such riches (or torment).
Oh benzene whether bound or free
Did He who made the Lamb make Thee ?
Benzene! Benzene! Burning bright
Belching engines day and night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame Kekulé's symmetry ?
~Badger
8 comments:
This poem is so clever! It literally made me laugh out loud. Oh, Ben Suslick and his love of chemistry. :)
I like this poem, but I think that the Board, the author, tries a little too hard to tie in various aspects of chemistry. Nonetheless, I think that he succeeds in producing a scientifically enlightening poem.
Oh this poem is halarious. It does a great job of presenting the inherent dichotomy of science- how it has propelled us in to our wonderful 21st century and yet seems to have doomed our future.
I loved this poem! Very nice imitation of Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright, made the science-y topic interesting and fun to read. I also liked the random line (Did He who made the Lamb make thee?) taken from the original poem.
-Daniel Cheng
Well I never. My little Benzene poem is doing the rounds!
Glad some of you liked it and thanks for posting it up on your site
Paul Board from a sunny and spring-like North Wales
Iam amrutha jose,student of Government College Mananathavady. Its a thought provoking poem. Its realy good to have this poem in our syllabus (kannur university). It gave a way to understand the real structure and effects of Benzene in our nature.
The importance of Benzene as well as its vigor have been aesthetically presented.Thank you Paul Board.
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