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Rebecca Elson

A Responsibility to Awe: Poems (Oxford Poets) Paperback – 25 Oct. 2001

by Rebecca Elson (Author)

4.7 127 ratings

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Rebecca Elson was an astronomer. Her work took her to the boundary of the visible and measurable. "Facts are only as interesting as the possibilities they open up to the imagination", she wrote. Her research involved "dark matter" - hidden mass which can be inferred only from its influence on observable objects: "As if, from fireflies, one could infer the field". Her poems, too, make inferences and speculate, setting out always from meticulous observation and not deterred by a knowledge of how little we can know of the universe. She agreed with Einstein's "A clear explanation that anyone can understand": she makes it possible for general readers to imagine how space curves, how each of us centres a universe of our own, and how much more there may be than our technologically enhanced perceptions allow us to experience. Extracts from notebooks record the ways in which she refined her understanding. "A Responsibility to Awe" collects her best poetry and extracts from her notebooks. An autobiographical essay provides background to this alert imagination, from her upbringing as a geologist's daughter in Canada to her scientific career around the world.

Print length

159 pages
Language

English
Publisher

OxfordPoets
Publication date

25 Oct. 2001
Dimensions

13.97 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm
ISBN-10

1903039541
ISBN-13

978-1903039540
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Product description

About the Author

Rebecca Elson was an astronomer. Her principal work focused on globular clusters, teasing out the history of stellar birth, life and death. Born in Montreal, Quebec, of Canadian and US parents, she studied at Smith, St Andrews, and the University of British Columbia. She took her PhD at Cambridge, where she won an Isaac Newton Studentship. She started publishing poems while working at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, and researched at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. In 1991 she returned to the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge to work on the first Hubble data. She died in Cambridge in 1999, aged 39.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ OxfordPoets (25 Oct. 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 159 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1903039541
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1903039540
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 585,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,628 in Criticism on Poetry & Poets

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4.7 127 ratings

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Dudleian

Science is the poetry of reality

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2023

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This first part of this book is a collection of the finished / published poems Elson wrote. The first quarter of them belong to a gifted writer who hasn’t found her voice. The remainder are real deal Elson. The poems I found most affecting were those which dealt with the passion of relationships—not love or sex, but passion.

The second part of the book is a poetic diary. A few of the entries are worked up into finished poems, like the wonderful Dark Matter from October 1993, which begins “Seeing, like that, only purple  // You would understand your world From a few iris,  // A few bolts of silk,  // And emptiness.”

The remainder are light watercolour sketches of the events of the day that remind me of O'Hara's Lunch Poems. Elson sometimes experiments with tightening the phrasing to make the entries more conventionally poetic, but I think they work perfectly in their original, delicate state.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2022

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Some time ago I bought a book called `Globular Clusters' since i was interested in learning more about those almost-alive little balls of stars (`Little' of course only in relation to galaxies!) In it was a long but very readable article about their evolution and dynamics written by a Rebecca Elson. THEN i found that the book was dedicated to her memory, and THEN on further investigation I found that confusingly there was a poet of that name. And only THEN I found that they were the same person: an accomplished astronomer and expert on clusters (working with data streams from the Hubble Telescope among other projects)., and in the same body was an equally accomplished poet with her feet very firmly on the ground and a wonderful love of life, writing excellent poetry, much of which was written after she knew that she had very few years- or even months - to live. A poet who was also an astronomer, not just an astronomer who wrote poetry. I wish there were more like her.
I loved all the poems, and also the many extracts from her workbooks that are fragments of poems or even potential lines. A sad loss to the world. By the way, pages from that `Globular cluster' book are used as end=plates in this book, they show the sort of work she did.
`Sometimes as an antidote to fear of death I eat the stars.'
`

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Mojodo

An excellent and unique collection by this astronomer-poet which sensitively and ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 November 2015

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An excellent and unique collection by this astronomer-poet which sensitively and intelligently considers our smaller lives on earth and our place in the larger universe. The use of language is bold and direct the imagery ocxcasionally startling and sometimes playful. The play of wit, in the older sense of the word, is ever-present. I particulalry likedf the inclusion of some of Rebecca Elson's notebbok entries which give an idea of her vision and working methods, and a glimpse of promising proto- poems which will neve rbe finished. It is a great shame and sadness that she died so young and therer will be no more of this fine work to follow.

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valerie

Poems that make you feel less lonely

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2020

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This book of poems offers a new perspective on the world. Poetic, witty, clever, smart and enlightening it brightens up my day.

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Writearound

Poems that stay with you.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2020

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Wonderful collection a much deserved classic.

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johngroutx@cs.com

Remarkable poetry from a serious scientist, and much more.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2001

A very unusual book. A must for anyone with a passion for life or interested in contemporary poetry or the life of contemporary scientists. Buy it even if you would not normally dream of buying poetry.
Published in Carcanet's Oxford Poets series, the book contains much more than Elson's fine poetry. Its publication is thus a bold and very welcome move by Carcanet.
Elson was a serious scientist (astronomer) and a remarkable poet too. She was married to the Italian artist, Angelo di Cintio. She was born and raised in Canada and she studied and worked in the United States and Australia as well as the UK. She studied particularly globular clusters (of stars). She must be the only astronomer to have taught creative writing at Harvard and to have published a poem called "Hanging out his Boxer Shorts to Dry".
The title comes from the book's first poem "We Astronomers". Her wonder at and admiration of the universe and objects generally is joined in her poetry with her passion for life and its emotional richness. Her pleasure in places and people is manifest.
Extracts from her literary journal show her keen observation of and joy in life as well as how she gropes for the right combinations of ideas and words in creating her poems. They also show her coping with terminal cancer in a life-affirming manner and with remarkable spirit and self knowledge. Fresh and vibrant - written quickly in pencil in her notebooks - the journal is quite extraordinarily rich.
And a short biographical essay telling of her work as a female scientist in male dominated institutions is both a fascinating social history and shows some of the strength of character which sustained her during her last illness. "... classes and seminars where I was the only woman. Often it felt like walking into the men's bathroom by mistake."
The material itself and the sequencing of both the poems and the selection of journal extracts make this book remarkable...

39 people found this helpful

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A Responsibility to Awe: Poems (Oxford Poets) Paperback – 25 Oct. 2001

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