The Book of Earth by Alfred Noyes, 328 pages
The Book of Earth is the middle book in Noyes' trilogy of epic poems celebrating scientific progress - where the first, Watchers of the Sky, followed the course of astronomical discoveries, the second trips through time following the advance of knowledge about the Earth and the life that teems upon it, from Pythagoras to Darwin. The image of the naked geological strata within the Grand Canyon symbolize the book of the world, in which the Creator's mind is revealed to the ardent seeker after truth. Noyes himself is committed to the words he puts in the mouth of Nichomachus, speaking to his son Aristotle - "...the living truth / Is here on earth if we could only see it."
Poetically, this work may be forgettable, but the story it tells is not, and that story simply could not be told in prose.
No comments:
Post a Comment