Tuesdays

1:30 - 3:00 pm

Online

5/25, 6/1, 6/8, 6/22, 6/29 & 7/6

No class session June 15th

Six Sessions 

This course is offered online via the easy-to-use Zoom program.

Are you a science nerd or a literature nerd?  You may be surprised by the number of scientists who have written poetry and the number of writers who have been inspired by science!  Join fellow OLLI members in reading some of these authors’ and poets’ works, and discussing the scientific concepts presented. Though some may think the two would make an unlikely pairing, the opposite is true.

Please note-- reading materials that are not available for free from the links below will be emailed to course participants in advance. 

May 25: Science and Poetry

"Eureka: An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe" and "Sonnet to Science" by Edgar Allan Poe

“Poetry” by Marianne Moore

June 1: Time and Time Travel

Excerpts from Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

"Proust Configures Time, Space, and Memory to Unveil Marcel’s Artistry in Swann’s Way" by Dr. Tara Hembrough

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

June 8: Gravity

Another Gravity: Poems by Don McKay -- an audio excerpt of his poem "Sometimes a Voice" can be found here

“The trick is slick code to manage" by James Clerk Maxwell

June 22: Evolution and Climate Change

Canto LVI from "In Memoriam" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Caliban on Setebos" by Robert Browning

Sea Change, poems by Jorie Graham

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

June 29: The Moon, The Stars, and The Planets

"When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer" by Walt Whitman

"My God, It’s Full of Stars" by Tracy K. Smith

July 6: Technology and Artificial Intelligence

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

“Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points“ by JY Yng

Instructor Linda E. Neville received her Master's of Education at Penn State University.  She is currently an English Language Arts Instructor and Co-coordinator of Distance Learning at the Northern Berkshire Adult Education Program/Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) in North Adams, Mass. Before becoming a teacher she worked in the family business, Neville's Donut Shop, with her husband, children and grandchildren while attending MCLA.  After graduating, she taught English and Humanities as a public school teacher. Having a life-long interest in local history, she continues her research on the book: The North Adams Hawthorne---Summer of 1838.

Next