Paradox
by Clarence R. Wylie Jr.
Last modified 18 Jun 2009, 20:46 -0400
[This poem was supplied by James Stafford,
who writes: "This poem first appeared in
the 1948 July issue of Scientific Monthly,
and then as a frontispiece for The
Anatomy of Mathematics by Kershner and
Wilcox, 1950."]
Not truth, nor certainty. These I foreswore
In my novitiate, as young men called
To holy orders must abjure the world.
"If… then…", this only I assert;
And my successes are but pretty chains
Linking twin doubts, for it is vain to ask
If what I postulate be justified,
Or what I prove possess the stamp of fact.
Yet bridges stand, and men no longer crawl
In two dimensions. And such triumphs stem
In no small measure from the power this game,
Played with the thrice-attenuated shades
Of things, has over their originals.
How frail the wand, but how profound the spell!