The Golden Ratio
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:41 pm
This is a sonnet on the golden ratio, a relation in maths governing things like fibonacci numbers and the chromatic scale in music: fibonacci numbers also govern lots of patterns in nature. This ratio is roughly 8:5, and the ratio of the octet to the sestet in a sonnet is 8:6 - this is the starting point of the sonnet.
From C to shining C divide the line:
The radiant golden sector marks the site,
The nexus where the thirteen tones unite,
The fifth which of perfection is the sign.
The worldly truth of Fibonacci's phi?
The spirals of the nautilus will tell,
As will a pine's cones whorls, a snail's shell -
A natural riddle poets seek to scry
In vain. The sonnet does not fit the rule;
The perfect ratio appears a flaw.
(For Judas was a devil, custom preached,
And he who scoffs at twelve is called a fool.)
On reaching thirteen lines we add one more:
Perfection is desired, but overreached.
From C to shining C divide the line:
The radiant golden sector marks the site,
The nexus where the thirteen tones unite,
The fifth which of perfection is the sign.
The worldly truth of Fibonacci's phi?
The spirals of the nautilus will tell,
As will a pine's cones whorls, a snail's shell -
A natural riddle poets seek to scry
In vain. The sonnet does not fit the rule;
The perfect ratio appears a flaw.
(For Judas was a devil, custom preached,
And he who scoffs at twelve is called a fool.)
On reaching thirteen lines we add one more:
Perfection is desired, but overreached.