The Chemistry of Poetry: Transfer Across Disciplines

Abstract

Teaching poetry and chemistry together reveals how the humanities and sciences require similar analytical and problem-solving skills. While students typically see poetry as more “subjective” and chemistry as more “objective,” close interdisciplinary reading can help them understand that all forms of inquiry include affective and interpretive, as well as evidence-based, elements.

Appendices

Appendix 1

[Slide 1—shows tagline “Says, Does, Means and Thin Layer Chromotography”] Says, Does, and Means is a strategy used to interpret texts. How we analyze texts is like how we think about chemistry. Chemistry uses observations—data—to understand the world and the behavior of matter and energy. Chemistry does this using frames, or models. The frames help us anticipate, with some certainty, the meaning of the data. We use structures as frames to represent the individual compounds that make up a substance, like salt or sugar, or mixture of substances, like salt water or sugar water. Structure is a frame, by which we look at data to decide what it means.

[Slide 2—shows a rectangular plate and the chemical structure] In thin layer chromatography, we have a plate, on this plate is a white powder. The powder on the plate is known as the stationary phase, meaning non-moving phase. The still phase is often polar silica, and it is represented with the structure drawn here.

[Slide 3—shows a plate, a beaker, and the process of mobile phase solvent movement] We take this plate and draw, along the bottom, a line, and onto this line we drop, with a micropipette, solutions of Compound 1 (represented in orange) and Compound 2 (represented in green). We put this plate into a beaker that contains a solvent, or set of solvents, which we call the mobile phase. We place the plate into the solvent with our pencil line, where our compounds are, above the solvent. Then, through capillary action, the mobile phase, the solvent travels up the plate. When the solvent has almost reached the top, we take the plate out and observe.

[Slide 4—shows two compounds on plate—orange spot low, green spot high] The compounds travel up the plate different distances, depending on their relative affinity for the stationary phase compared to the mobile phase. In general, the stationary phase is more polar than the mobile phase, so compounds that are more polar will stick to the stationary phase, while those that are less polar will move up along with the mobile phase. In this picture, then, we might infer that the compound represented by the green dot is less polar, and the compound represented by the orange dot is more polar.

[Slide 5—shows two compound structures, orange and green] Let’s now consider two structures, written in orange and green ink, that represent the two color-coded compounds. We can speculate that the compound represented in orange is more polar, and is interacting with the stationary phase. It does this by using forces of attraction that involve the Hs interacting with the Os, so that we have a pattern of O-H-O, where the dotted line represents the attraction. This suggests that all the Os and HOs on the structure can interact with the silica structure, or the stationary phase. These are the sticky spots that attract the compounds to the non-moving powder, the silica on the plate. The structure in orange has three sticky spots, whereas the structure in green has only two sticky spots. The structure represented in green has fewer sticky spots, so it travels up the plate with the mobile phase more easily. So, we have our data—how far the compounds travel up the plate relative to one another—and we think about our data in relation to our model—our structures—and, in particular, the number of attractive forces each compound has with the silica. We have our data, and we have our model, or framework. Our data gives us the distance that the compound represented in green travels, relative to the distance the compound represented in orange travels. This is what our data SAYS.

[Slide 6—shows a square marked DATA and a square marked MODEL] When I place our data into a model, or framework, it shows us that structural features of the compounds can give us information about the compounds’ behavior. Whe integrate the data and the model, I can see what the data DOES. The model shows me how structural features help me to understand the data. In theory, then, when we look at what our data SAYS, how far our compounds travel up the plate, and we consider our data using a frame, we can arrive at a tentative explanation of what the data MEANS, or what we can infer from the data.

[Slide 7—returns to green and orange structures and image of plate] What does this mean? It seems to suggest that the more sticky sites a compound has, to interact with the stationary phase, the more the compound will be attracted and stick staying near the stationary phase, instead of moving up the plate with the mobile phase.

[Slide 8—orange structure and new pink structure, and image of plate with orange spot lower and pink spot higher] What if we look at new data to see how it fits in our frame? Our data shows that a compound, represented here by the pink spot, is retained more (travels less) than the compound represented by the orange spot, because it has five sticky sites to interact with the stationary phase, whereas the orange structure has only three. When we look at the data using our framework, we can affirm what the data MEANS—what SAYS MEANS. In chemistry, we try to apply what our data MEANS to new situations, to see if that is what it truly MEANS.

[Slide 9—orange structure and new purple structure, and image of plate with no spots] So looking again at the structure represented in orange, and comparing it to a new structure represented in purple, we can identify three sticky sites in orange and, again, five on the purple. This might suggests that the purple structure—like the pink structure in the last slide—might stick to the stationary phase more than the orange structure. We might expect the purple compound to be retained.

[Slide 10—shows two plates, one with the orange spot higher, and one with the orange and purple spots equally high] We can imagine a plate with the orange spot higher, because the purple structure has more sticky sites. But what we observe is something different: both compounds travel the same distance. This is what the data says. Why does our data not give us the same meaning?

[Slide 11—shows the words SAYS, DOES, MEANS] What the data SAYS is just what it SAYS—it can’t be changed. But what the data DOES is specific to the choices we make—the context, or frame, that we put our data into. If our frame is limited, we may not be able to understand what the data means, and we may have to go back and re-consider our frame. This is the scientific method: to interpret data in terms of models, and to make meaning—and then to go back and look at more data, to see if the frame allows us to draw the same conclusions. If not, we might have missed something. There might be something that our frame is not allowing us to see.

Appendix 2

Final Project—Poetry everywhere

Find a discipline, profession, personal interest or experience connected to your life in some way: astronomy, swimming, immigration, nursing. Whatever.

Find three poems connected to your theme from our online archives (Poetry Daily, Poetry Foundation, Blackbird, Rattle, etc.). This time, they do not need to be from any particular era, but they should be contemporary—not Poe. Choose carefully. I expect to see evidence of thoughtful curation.

Find an Emily Dickinson poem connected to your theme. I will help you as needed on the hands-on workshop days (or earlier, if you want). Even if your theme is cybersecurity we can make this work! Use the Dickinson archive on the Houghton Library Website at Harvard, and choose the Thomas Johnson text edition to recopy.

Create an anthology on your WordPress site, re-copying each of the four poems. Each poem should have a headnote (a paragraph preceding the poem) that explains, in one paragraph, what the poem says, does, and/or means. If the poem is very obvious, concentrate on the “means.” If it is very difficult, concentrate on the “says.” Show me that you understand the poem; there is no formula for what you choose to emphasize. You can’t do a full says/does/means in one paragraph so you’ll have to decide what is most important and least obvious.

Also create a section for your anthology called “Introduction” that tells me why, on a personal level, you picked your theme and how these poems each explore a different aspect of the theme. This will be 2–3 paragraphs.

Finally, in the last weeks of class, you will write and revise an additional poem for your anthology and add it. (Your introduction will already be written, so you don’t have to mention it there.) Include a headnote, just like with the other poems.