June 8, 2001

Course Mixes Mathematics and Poetry at Rochester Institute of Technology

In "Geometry," the poet Rita Dove writes about the ecstasy of solving a difficult proof: "I prove a theorem and the house expands:/the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,/the ceiling floats away with a sigh." Marcia Birken, a mathematics professor, and Anne Coon, a literature professor, have built an entire course at the Rochester Institute of Technology on top of Dove's deconstructed house, a class that investigates how analogies prompt, as Ms. Birken says, "the ability to see

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