In honour of National Poetry Day, and to continue a theme from yesterday’s post, here (courtesy of Wikipedia) are Charles Babbage’s suggestions to Alfred, Lord Tennyson on how to improve a poem:
"In your otherwise beautiful poem, one verse reads,
-
- Every moment dies a man,
- Every moment one is born.
- … If this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest:
-
- Every moment dies a man,
- Every moment 1 1/16 is born.
Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry."
Genius.
