* a colorful lyrical alignment

This week’s post features a lyrical alignment of an excerpt from Victoria Finlay’s book Color: A Natural History of the Palette. This is the kind of nonfiction book that tries to break down information through story and personal recollections. Finlay writes of her travels to the places where particular colors are made and goes into the details of their physical and historical make-up.

I read this book back in 2012 and still find myself citing several of its jewels of knowledge with people. One particular moment in the book lends itself to being read on its own like a poem. In the excerpt (lyrically aligned below), Finlay recounts one scientist’s metaphorical explanation of the color of the sky. Enjoy!

The Color of the Sky

a lyrical alignment 

“…to explain the color of the sky, [John Tyndall, nineteenth century British scientist] would use an image of the sea.” (from Color – Victoria Finlay)

Think of the ocean, he would say,

and think of the waves

crashing against the land.

If they came across

a huge cliff

then all the waves would stop;

if they met a rock

then only the smaller waves

would be affected;

while a pebble

would change the course

of only the tiniest waves

washing against the beach.

This is what happens

with light from the sun.

Going through the atmosphere

the biggest wave lengths –

the red ones –

are usually unaffected,

and it is only the smallest ones –

the blue and violet ones –

which are scattered by the tiny

pebble-like molecules

in the sky,

giving the human eye

the sensation of blue.

Tyndall thought

it was particles of dust

which did it;

Einstein later proved

that even molecules

of oxygen and hydrogen

are big enough to scatter

the blue rays

and leave the rest alone.

***

Happy scattering!

José