Conventional styles of scientific writing tend to consist of direct and analytical content that outlines, in meticulous detail, observations and experiments, sometimes accompanied by diagrams to clarify complex descriptive sections. However, this conventional approach is not universally accepted by the German scientist (writer, poet, statesman, etc) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s approach to scientific writing, which sometimes evolves into poetry. There are two aspects to poetry as a form of scientific writing that sparked my interest. The first is what potential reasons Goethe had for choosing to use poetry as a format of scientific writing. The second is the practicality of poetry as scientific writing and whether or not it can hold by itself, or if other, more conventional forms of writing need to be read in conjunction with the poetry to understand Goethe’s work. Goethe’s poem and one of his more traditional-styled pieces of scientific writing, both titled The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790), will be used to investigate these two aspects.
In order to address the first aspect, the potential reasons Goethe had for using poetry as scientific writing, appropriately, it must be contextualized by two philosophical movements that were widespread in Europe during the 18th century: Romanticism and Enlightenment. Romanticism was a movement that, at its core, emphasized nature through the use of various art forms, most significantly through poetry. The Enlightenment movement emphasized the use of reason, as well as encouraging one to stray away from more traditional ideals. Being that Goethe’s poem, The Metamorphosis of Plants was written in the late 18th century, and that science is the study of nature, the two spheres would unsurprisingly merge and mingle. Furthermore, poetic writing, throughout a large part of history, has been considered to be the language of the educated, adding more clarity as to why Goethe used poetic expression as a form of scientific writing.
To continue addressing the possible reasons Goethe used poetry as a form of scientific writing, I will provide a cursory overview of stylistic choices and major themes within the poem The Metamorphosis of Plants. In a later section I will go more in depth about the poem specifically. The poem begins with a narrator describing their observation of plants growing, with a tone that is awe-inspiring, using words and phrases such as “holy” (line 13), “serene life” (line 18), and “perfection” (line 29). The extolling tone towards nature aligns with the Romanticist ideology. In the middle of the poem, Goethe personifies Nature, making it appear as though she is meddling with the process of growth of the plant, helping it achieve “fuller perfection” (line 34). Towards the end of the poem, Goethe expands the visual of the mental picture to depict the nature surrounding the plant, referring to caterpillars, and their evolved variation, butterflies (line 71). Goethe ends the poem by making the statement “Nature has lent our feelings, unfolding them quietly.” (line 76), extending the observation of plants and the hold Nature had over the process, to how Nature is the source of our human capacity to feel, encapsulating Romanticist ideals. The ending sentiment Goethe makes: “...in harmonic beholding, the higher world.” (line 80), can be applied to Goethe’s use of poetry as a form of scientific writing. It indicates his belief that nothing is independent of Nature and the world, making it organic for him to connect the empirical to the more elevated, beautiful language of poetry, as perhaps both an appropriate ode to Nature, and as a tool to transition and pinpoint the interconnectedness of his natural observations to his more abstract philosophical perspective regarding the larger, holistic picture of the harmony of everything in the world. This includes the guiding force of Nature in regard to the human condition; cycles of Nature being reflected in human actions, functions, and emotions.
One main objective of scientific writing is to convey scientific thoughts and research, which leads me to have to consider the second aspect previously mentioned: the practicality of poetic expression as scientific writing. To consider this aspect efficiently and fairly, Goethe’s poem, The Metamorphosis of Plants, will be explored in an isolated manner, and I will derive any scientific information present in the poetic text. Then the more conventionally styled text that serves as a counterpart of the poem with the same title will be applied, if relevant, to determine whether or not the poem by itself can serve an adequate role in conveying scientific information, or if the supplementary material is critical to the acquisition of scientific knowledge from the poem.
The first 30 lines of the poem, as previously mentioned, focus on the growth of a plant. Certain phrasing such as “Behold now as it grows, how little by little the plant, conducted forward stepwise…” (line 9-10), implies that the growth of the plant is very linear. The description in the poem of how the plant grows puts more emphasis on bringing forth the beauty of the process, rather than stating the details of it. Within the more conventional text of The Metamorphosis of Plants, Goethe goes into a much more meticulous account of what occurs during the growth of a plant. When describing nodes growing from another, the poem simply states it (line 24), whereas in the conventional text, it describes how the upper node receives filtered and refined sap from the lower node. The elaboration on the node growth process is tangible material to conduct future research on, whereas the poetic description does not allow for much of a foundation in future endeavors.
In the middle of the poem, lines 31-60, there is a tone change with the introduction of the aforementioned personification of Nature, characterizing her as an omnipresent force, assisting the plant in its development. During this section, numerous scientific terminologies are introduced, such as “midrib” (line 38), “calyx” (line 43), and “crowns” (line 44), without any additional information about what these parts are exactly, besides the context of the sentence. Using the word “midrib” as an example, the word is used in this sentence: “And the midrib develops more thickly near the stem” (line 38), from the context, I can gather that the midrib goes through the entire plants, perhaps going from thicker at the stem to thinner at the tip of the plant, it is probably also in the middle of the plant due to the prefix of “mid-”. However, beyond what is given through context and the deconstruction of the word itself, nothing more can be concretely stated about these terminologies. In the more conventional scientific writing, Goethe structures the information in a hierarchical order, progressively becoming more advanced. In the section titled “Of the Seed Leaves”, Goethe introduces the word for the first organs in a plant called “cotyledons”, and he proceeds to outlines both what other words have been ascribed to them (“...seed lobes, nuclei, seed laps, and seed leaves…” (page 73), and their physical appearance, which are described as “...unformed, filled with a crude material, as thick as they are broad.” (page 73). The latter approach to scientific terminology is much easier to follow along without prior knowledge as it refines it to simpler terms.
In the final section of the poem, The Metamorphosis of Plants, Goethe focuses on his holistic philosophical views on the interconnectedness of Nature and emotions. Being that the focus is on emotions, directly indicated through the mentioning of “friendship” (line 73) and “love” (line 74), it is unsurprising that the writing is subjective, dictated greatly by the emotions the text is describing. This is a juxtaposition to the conventional text, which essentially remains purely objective, stating observations with follow-up reasoning that is guided by logic.
The two aspects that have been discussed, potential reasons to use poetry as a form of scientific writing and the practicality of it, should, perhaps, not be viewed isolated from each other, but rather in the same holistic manner as Goethe viewed nature, science, and poetry. Empirical science, which one would typically associate with the aforementioned conventional style of scientific writing, is not devoid of philosophical thinking, which I would describe as formulating thoughts through curiosity that contain some truth, with applied imaginative reasoning to expand the truth to a further degree of veracity, whether it be affirmed or not. In fact, it would seem as though the application of philosophical thinking is essential for the empirical to have meaning and relevance. Without philosophical thinking, there would be no development of hypotheses, which are needed for the progression of science and in the search for more knowledge. In order for philosophical thinking to exist, imagination and an appreciation for nature must be present, both of which were required to write the poem The Metamorphosis of Plants.
Simply because there are more practical forms of scientific writings does not negate the value that comes from poetic expression. Both forms of scientific writing serve their own unique functions, which in Goethe’s case, aligns with his holistic ideology and the versatility in scientific thinking he possesses; both the empirical and the philosophical. To measure the value of a work is to necessarily consider the intention behind its purpose, as that identification is what defines the scale on which said value is judged. In the case of the scientific text of The Metamorphosis of Plants, the intention is clear: to create a work which progresses the cumulative scientific knowledge, doing so through patient observations, detailed descriptions, and keen insights, all conveyed through clear writing. In the case of the poetic text of The Metamorphosis of Plants, the intention appears to be one which leans more into the humanities, while being evidently inspired by Goethe’s love of science. He connects his empirical observations about plants to what he supposes human emotive processes are, and thereby derives a philosophical principle to follow; make your actions reflections of nature.
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