Re: [HM] Poetry and Mathematics

Ralph A. Raimi (rarm@math.rochester.edu)
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 19:56:01 -0500 (EST)

The epigraph to Einar Hille's AMS Colloquium volume, *Functional
Analysis and Semigroups* (1948), reads,

And each man hears as the twilight nears,
to the beat of his dying heart,
The Devil drum on the darkened pane:
"You did it, but was it Art?"

This book has been standing on my shelf for nearly fifty years,
and every once in a while I have idly wondered about the source of the
verses. (It sounds a bit like Kipling, now that I think of it again.)
Hille certainly meant that mathematics that was not Art was
worthless; hence the fear.

Ralph A. Raimi Tel. 716 275 4429 or (home) 716 244 9368
Dept. of Mathematics FAX 716 244 6631
University of Rochester Webpage http://www.math.rochester.edu/u/rarm
Rochester, NY 14627 (Webpage contains links to papers)