At nineteen years old, she wrote of a hideous monster;
and spoke of it later with satisfaction and aplomb:
this proper young lady, who, without knowledge of physics,
created a metaphor that anticipated the Bomb.
Starward
Author's Notes/Comments:
During the somewhat hysterical sixties, and a little more muted in the seventies, we all feared---openly or more passively and quietly---what we called the Bomb, which we rightly believed could destroy all life on the earth.
The poem's second line refers to Mary Shelley's "Introduction" to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein; the publishers of which had requested an explanation of its origin.
I have been a student of Mary Shelley's work, primarily Frankenstein, since 1968. I only just now, tonight, realized her novel presented a metaphor that anticipated the creation and deployment of atomic bombs. I do not know if this thought is original with me or not, and I do not much care. It came into my mind tonight and because I have loved Mary Shelley so much, and am indebted to her for so much, I am posting the poem.
