The Universe in Verse 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry

The Universe in Verse is an ode to wonder and an exploration of the human search for truth and meaning. 

Poetry and science, as Popova writes in her introduction, "are instruments for knowing the world more intimately and loving it more deeply." In 15 short essays on subjects ranging from the mystery of dark matter and the infinity of pi to the resilience of trees and the intelligence of octopuses, Popova tells the stories of scientific searching and discovery. These stories are interwoven with details from the very real and human lives of scientists—many of them women, many underrecognized—and poets inspired by the same questions and the beauty they reveal. Each essay is paired with a poem reflecting its subject by poets ranging from Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to Maya Angelou, Diane Ackerman, and Tracy K. Smith, and is stunningly illustrated by celebrated artist Ofra Amit. Together, they wake us to a "reality aglow with wonder." 

Maria Popova thinks and writes about our search for meaning—sometimes through science and philosophy, sometimes through poetry and children's books, always through the lens of wonder. She is the creator of The Marginalian, born in 2006 under the outgrown name Brain Pickings and included in the Library of Congress permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials, author of Figuring and The Snail with the Right Heart, and maker of The Universe in Verse—a charitable celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry.

The Universe in Verse
By Maria Popova
 
Introduction
 
1. The Singularity and Our Elemental Belonging
              “Singularity,” by Marie Howe
 
2. Flowers and the Birth of Ecology
              [Bloom], by Emily Dickinson
 
3. Entropy and the Art of Alternative Endings
              “The More Loving One,” by W. H. Auden
 
4. Henrietta Leavitt, Edwin Hubble, and Our Hunger to Know the Universe
              “My God, It’s Full of Stars,” by Tracy K. Smith
 
5. Dark Matter and Our Yearning for Light
              “Let There Always Be Light” by Rebecca Elson
 
6. Emily Noether, Symmetry, and the Hidden Order of Things
              “Figures of Thought,” by Howard Nemerov
 
7. Trees and the Optimism of Resilience
              “Optimism,” by Jane Hirshfield
 
8. Pi and the Seductions of Infinity
              “Pi,” by Wislawa Szymborska, translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak
 
9. Euclid and the Dazzling Beauty of Universal Truth
              “Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 
10. Radioactivity and the Mystery of Matter
              “Power,” by Adrienne Rich
 
11. The Octopus and the Unknown
              “Octopus Blues,” by Maria Popova
 
12. This Mote of Matter
              “A Brave and Startling Truth,” by Maya Angelou
 
13. The Search for Life
              “We Are Listening,” by Diane Ackerman
 
14. Mushrooms and the Creative Spirit
              “Mushrooms,” by Sylvia Plath
 
15. Singularity Squared
              “Singularity,” by Marissa Davis