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Martin Zarrop

 Robert Hooke (1635-1703)

I've found there's no such thing as too much care
when rivals will purloin your inner thoughts
to occupy prime place in history.
This anagram protects my precious work,
avoiding future tension with my peers.

ut tensio, sic vis reveals my law:
extension is proportional to force.
Since 1660, I have known this truth,
then regulated time with balance-springs, 
an idea that vile Huygens later stole.

My genius can provoke such jealousy.
I dream of Christiaan on a hairspring rope,
my law predicting how he oscillates,
until he begs forgiveness for his crime
and yields to my first place while I have time.

The Science

Robert Hooke was the first curator of experiments at the Royal Society. He discovered the law of elasticity that bears his name. It describes the linear variation of tension with extension in an elastic string, an accurate approximation for most solid bodies as long as stresses and deformations are within certain limits. The announcement of his law using an anagram was sometimes used by scientists to establish priority for a discovery without revealing details. Hooke's work on elasticity came to fruition in the development of the balance spring and reasonably accurate watches for the first time. He clashed with Christiaan Huygens over priority for this later work. Huygens is given priority for building the first watch using a balance spring, but a 1670 note in the Royal Society's journals may support Hooke's claim.

The Poet

Martin Zarrop is a retired mathematician who wanted certainty but found life more interesting and fulfilling by not getting it. He started writing poetry in 2006 and has published widely in magazines. He has lived in Manchester since 1980 but zooms everywhere. He has published three pamphlets: No Theory of Everything (Cinnamon 2015, joint winner of the Cinnamon Pamphlet Competition), Making Waves (V.Press 2019) and To Boldly Go (V.Press 2020) and three full collections: Moving Pictures (Cinnamon 2016), Is Anyone There? (The High Window Press 2020) and Turn Around When Possible (V.Press 2023).

Next poem: Circus Syndrome by Chloe Bowman