Origins - The Cosmos in Verse

A poetic odyssey through the origins of the universe from one of Britain’s leading physicists.

There raged a thumping cosmic ballyhoo,

A manic dance – a rumpus to arouse

The universe: of Higgs and W,

Electrons, gluons, muons, Zs and taus…

For centuries, poetry and science have been improbable, yet constant, bedfellows. Chaucer was an amateur astronomer; Milton broke bread with Galileo; and before turning to the arts Keats was a doctor. Meanwhile, scientific luminaries like Ada Lovelace and James Clerk Maxwell moonlighted as poets, composing verse between experiments and equations.

Following in this tradition, theoretical physicist Joseph Conlon spins a dazzling intergalactic epic. Drawing on his own scientific expertise, Conlon reveals the origins of our universe, through two long-form poems – ‘The Elements’ and ‘The Galaxies’. Journeying from the Big Bang to the edges of our ever-expanding cosmos, Origins offers a delightful and revelatory adventure through contemporary physics.