Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Straight Dope on Jove


What men are poets
who can speak of Jupiter as if he were like a man,
but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia
must be silent?
            -- Richard Feynman


Hail, mighty Jupiter, compact of ammonia and methane!
Of methane!  -- how sweet the sound!  Chiming harmoniously with ethane.
Immense of expanse, you spin on your axis  like a ball – nay, a ballerina!
-- No, sorry, a ball. A 2-sphere.   An atom.     A neutrina.

Porter, where are the poets? -- In the harem, fawning on eunuchs.
And the scientists? -- Swiving the Muses,  dining on nectar and phoenix.
Minstrels, troll us a catch,   a song to make us merry!
"Jove's mass o'ertops ten thousand pounds;  his temperature doth vary."

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