“On the eve of a sight far from typical–
Thanks to junction of orbits elliptical–
Moon-o’er-sun: brief obscuring
Will prove mem’ry enduring
In tomorrow’s occasion ecliptical.”
The NaPoWriMo 2024 routine included multiple themed sets of poems, although none of this year’s sequences were quite so esoteric as previous years’ celebrations (e.g., those that had focused on enthalpy or reaction mechanisms in previous Aprils). The first such set was the sequence of Twitter poems from 7 April 2024 through 9 April 2024, in which all three posts celebrated the spring term’s total solar eclipse.
The corresponding essays will be posted here today and in the next two weeks, celebrating the day before, the day of, and the day after the memorable event (the time “around the block,” perhaps).
“On the eve of a sight far from typical– /
Thanks to junction of orbits elliptical…”
It is useful to remember how little I need to deviate from a chemistry-only focus before I am apprehensive about using creative writing to celebrate STEM themes! The total solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 was certainly an event best discussed knowledgeably by an astronomer.
However, it also felt absurd to ignore such a historic event during a monthlong celebration of science themes, so I confined my “Eclipse Day Eve” limerick to two big points. One, the orbits of the Earth around the sun and the moon around the Earth both take the shape of an ellipse (as denoted in Kepler’s laws), so I made the case that the famous encounter causing a solar eclipse could be considered a “junction of orbits elliptical.” Two, I likewise felt confident in designating the event “far from typical,” given that it had been several years since I’d seen even a partial eclipse.
“Moon-o’er-sun: brief obscuring /
Will prove mem’ry enduring /
In tomorrow’s occasion ecliptical.”
The points raised in lines 3-4 were similarly straightforward. I knew the time of the actual total eclipse at my location would be brief but memorable, especially if weather predictions held and we had clear skies for the minutes leading up to totality.
One last point– probably an unsurprisingly one: the spark for this specific poem was the potential rhyme between the “elliptical” nature of the astronomical orbits and the “ecliptical” theme of the day. (The latter was a newly coined term, but ideally a logical use of poetic license.)
Chemphasis 