{"id":30,"date":"2014-09-17T17:35:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T17:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepoetryofscience.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2014-09-17T17:35:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T17:35:56","slug":"an-ode-to-old-pliny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/thepoetryofscience\/30\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ode to Old Pliny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born to a Noble Family shortly after BC<\/p>\n

Gaius Plinius Secundus was he,<\/p>\n

Or Pliny to both his family and friends<\/p>\n

At 23 he fought German barbarians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bored of the fighting he moved back to Rome<\/p>\n

And in grammatical textbooks soon found a home,<\/p>\n

Writing about history and collecting with tact<\/p>\n

Over 20,000 accounts of Natural \u2018fact\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Such as how monsters roamed in the Far East<\/p>\n

And how Illyrians were all one-eyed beasts,<\/p>\n

He wrote of how elephants shudder at mice<\/p>\n

With bee kings not queens; he was quite precise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Collecting so much in 37 volumes of work<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have time to check all the quirks,<\/p>\n

Such as children who rode dolphins to school<\/p>\n

But his eccentricity didn\u2019t make him a fool.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He rose every day at the stroke of midnight<\/p>\n

And in reading and dictating took his greatest delight,<\/p>\n

Often being carried from pillar to post<\/p>\n

With his scribe and his reader, listening always to both.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His end came on a beach covered in dust<\/p>\n

Brought about by erupting Mount Vesuvius,<\/p>\n

Pliny the younger, should have been there<\/p>\n

But thankfully wasn\u2019t and so there was an heir.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With no full-scale critique until 1492<\/p>\n

Pliny the Elder\u2019s reputation just grew,<\/p>\n

And whilst he was often wide of the mark<\/p>\n

In the sciences he made one hell of a start!<\/p>\n

\"9231690980_b713df72a1_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s how he\u2019d want to be remembered (Photo credit: Thomas Cizauskas<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born to a Noble Family shortly after BC Gaius Plinius Secundus was he, Or Pliny to both his family and friends At 23 he fought<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,29,28,2,31,3],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-poems","tag-grammar","tag-nature","tag-pliny","tag-poetry","tag-romans","tag-science","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Ode to Old Pliny - The Poetry of Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/thepoetryofscience\/30\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Ode to Old Pliny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Born to a Noble Family shortly after BC Gaius Plinius Secundus was he, Or Pliny to both his family and friends At 23 he fought\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/thepoetryofscience\/30\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Poetry of Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-17T17:35:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-17T17:35:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2014\/09\/9231690980_b713df72a1_z-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sam Illingworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sam Illingworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sam Illingworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/092b7455dba0c36ffa4f0346d93fc7ed\"},\"headline\":\"An Ode to Old Pliny\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-17T17:35:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-17T17:35:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":244,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/9231690980_b713df72a1_z-225x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Grammar\",\"Nature\",\"Pliny\",\"poetry\",\"Romans\",\"science\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science Poems\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/thepoetryofscience\\\/30\\\/an-ode-to-old-pliny\\\/\",\"name\":\"An Ode to Old Pliny - 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