The enchantress of numbers and the magic noose of poetry: Literature, mathematics, and mysticism in the nineteenth century

Abstract

John Ruskin once stated that the artistic imagination ‘works not by algebra, nor by integral calculus.’Citation1 This article, however, will explore the relationship between poetry and mathematics in the nineteenth century, the influence of algebra (and even integral calculus) on the imagination of writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the poetic aspirations of mathematicians such as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. Although the notion of the ‘Two Cultures’ (C. P. Snow) is increasingly falling under scrutiny and criticism,Citation2 the perceived dichotomy between the arts and the sciences nevertheless remains entrenched in our education system, intellectual culture, and in academia.