Five Songs of a Shropshire Physicist

Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

is falling gravity from the bough,

and put a force on the woodland ride

wearing white for midterm time

When I Was One and Twenty

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,

"degrees turn clockwise,

But not the other way;

Vectors can help you

find the force you need"

But I was one-and-twenty

no use to talk to me

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard him say again,

"physics of motion is never

learned in vain;

other types of physics are

also useful too."

And I was two-and-twenty

And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true

Look Not in My Eyes

Look not in my eyes for fear

They mirror true the sight I see,

And there you find thelens so clear

controled by the ciliary;

One may see the rods and cones

Spent 'ore time loose in moan

But why should sight as well as I

Perish? gaze not in my eyes.

Think No More, Lad

Think no more, lad; laugh, be jolly:

Physics is what comes to mind

Empty heads and tongues a talking

Make the classroom tough for walking

And the feather pate of folly

Bears the falling sky

Oh, this adding, simplifying

spins the heavy world around

if our hearts are not so clever

stuck in physics here forever:

Think no more: 'tis only thinking

lays lads underground

Repeat Verse the First

Is Physics Ploughing

"Is physics ploughing,

That I was used to drive

And see the formula solving,

when I was man alive?"

Ay, the problems trample

the mind of mine is through

No change though you lie under

the formula to prove

"Is the massmoving

along the river shore

with no more forces pushing

will it stop once more?"

Ay, the mass is flying

the incline was quite steep

results are well contented

Be still my lad and sleep.

"Is Newton hearty

Now motion thin and pine

And have his laws to sleep in

a better bed than mine?"

Yes, lad, I lie easy

I lie as physics choose

whose force is acting on me,

Never ask me whose.