Euclid of Alexandria was a Greek Mathematician and was often referred to as the Founder/Father of Geometry. One of his most significant works was a text book called "Euclid's Elements" which contained math developed or originated from himself along with that of other mathematicians. The biggest accomplishment of this textbook is that Euclid was able to present these math findings in a single, coherent framework - making it easy to reference.
The poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay seems to be touching on the immunity of Euclid's discoveries as being a "sandal set in stone." This seems to be referring the rigidity of Euclid's findings in standing the test of time such as being etched in stone. Millay's poem also seems to focus on the beauty of Euclid's work.
On the other hand, David Kramer's poem seems to be questioning the perpetuate nature of Euclid's work. As every line is posed as a question, it seems that Kramer is highlighting the importance of being cautious when considering Euclid's findings. Although these mathematical concepts have been around for so long, I believe that Kramer is telling us to never take anything as given and perhaps when the "sandal is removed" we may see a change in how we view the established ideas of math.
Good. I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'immunity' here -- you might possibly mean 'immensity'?
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, I made a poor choice of wording... I was trying to highlight the resilience of Euclid's findings through time. Perhaps a better word would have been imperishability.
DeleteAh, that's nice!
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