Tuesday Poem: "Enchantress of Numbers" by Helen Rickerby
Enchantress of Numbers
Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace
.
One
On the table
is a dancing girl
made of silver, spun by gears
and cogs she pirouettes
………………….she arabesques
and when she begins to slow
I wind the key again
…….let her go
My father the poet, my mother
the parallelogram
……….two lines
……….that should never have crossed
Passion and
reason, frenzy and logic
………..…….It's no wonder
it ended as it did
.
Two
She said she was protecting me
from his blood, my blood
and the poison that was waiting there
Sitting at my desk
my books open
she wrapped me, laced me
in numbers, equations
like a whale-bone corset
to keep my back
straight, my spine aligned
and threaded through my mind
little lines of logic
a program for equilibrium
And so you see
…………………it was my mother
who first programmed me
But maybe the software
doesn't work
I think, in the dark summerhouse
with my tutor
Maybe a line of code
is incorrect
as I feel the lick
of his eyelashes
against my shoulder
He is dismissed
I walk five miles
to find him
but he has already gone
.
Three
A present from my mother
and today not even
…………….my birthday
I am twenty years of age
I am safely married
I am waiting
for my own first child
I am no longer an accident
waiting to happen
She sends me
something dangerous, something
explosive
Behind my composure
I faint as I tear
the corner of the paper
rip away
the shield, the protection
and there he is
glowing
within the gilt frame
turban knotted around
his noble head
……………..I see in him
my own eyes, my mouth
the cleft of my chin
and I can see
why she kept this
kept him
from me
.
Four
I never met him, my father
………… but I grew
in his shadow, in his light
What he was with words
I would be
with numbers
An alchemist, an enchantress
…………….I promised myself
I first saw the dancing girl
in Babbage's studio
A toy, a fancy
My eyes lighted
on a plainer set of
cogs and wheels
engraved with numbers
……………..The Difference Engine
The other ladies scattered
their tinkling laughter but I
asked, 'How does it work?'
He told me
……………….and I understood
.
Five
The Analytical Engine
was harder, because
……. it didn't exist
except in our minds
.. But I .can explain it
share it
It will change
everything
I am a prophetess, a seer
In me
the twin streams meet
His blood, not drained
but flowing with her reason
I have watched for it
waited, afraid
of the madness, the badness
the danger, but now
I think I may be
the answer to the equation
Numbers dance
to the beat of the iamb
trochee, spondee
numbers make music
poetry
if you listen
with the right ear
And so you see
……………………. … I am his daughter
after all
.
(c) Helen Rickerby
Published in My Iron Spine, HeadworX, 2008
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About Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace
(1815–1852)
Daughter of the poet Byron and his wife Annabella Milbanke. Her mother left Byron when Ada was one month old, believing him mad and immoral. He was never allowed to see Ada again. Fond of mathematics herself, Annabella had Ada trained in maths in the hope it would discipline her away from any poetic or deviant nature she may have inherited from her father. Ada is best known for her notes to her translation of a scientific paper explaining Charles Babbage's design for the Analytical Engine, a precursor to the computer. She has been called the first computer programmer because one of the notes contains what is generally considered to be the first (albeit theoretical) computer program. It was Charles Babbage who called Lovelace the "Enchantress of Numbers", writing the following in 1843 (Toole 1998, Acknowledgment):
"Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans – every thing in short but the Enchantress of Numbers."
About Helen Rickerby:
Resident in Wellington, New Zealand, Helen Rickerby is a fellow Tuesday Poet, Managing Editor of Seraph Press, and co-managing editor of JAAM with Clare Needham. Helen has published her work in various literary journals, mainly in New Zealand. Her first collection of poetry, Abstract Internal Furniture, was published by HeadworX in 2001 and her second, My Iron Spine, followed in 2008.
Enchantress of Numbers is one of the very many, fine poems in My Iron Spine, which I have recently read and enjoyed very much.
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And don't forget: this month's " … on Anything, Really" feature is "Fun With Thornspell." You can find out more here and here.
