To Hear Her Song

In diss'nant chords the noise and din surround,
Competing for the minds composed by song.
So shaped by those from ages now forgone,
Yet held within some rhythm all around.
How can one hear Heaven's pure strain resound,
When She besets upon them such a throng?
When only ever forte seems belong,
The instruments can only but confound. 

So under amber peaks and silver planes,
They gathered to construct the ring-shaped room,
Where single melodies could be resolved.
From notes revealed they heard Her sweet refrain,
And learned the key to play a unique tune,
To find white dust from which the dunes are formed.


Fred Gillard, 2023

Programme Notes

The author writes: [The sonnet] is quite cryptic, but the general idea is I've used music and sound as a metaphor for the laws of the universe, inspired by how QFT is essentially vibrations, and so in a way music. The octave poses the problem of how are we meant to understand the music of God (Her) when we are surrounded by and trapped in such a noisy world. The sestet resolves this by us building experiments (specifically synchrotrons, hence the ring-shaped room) to resolve single melodies and understand the universe.