A THEORY ABOUT A THEORY

by Anton Wills-Eve


<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/theory/”>Theory</a&gt;

 

A THEORY ABOUT A THEORY

 

I once developed a theory

In a doctorial dissertation.

The words, though esoteric,

Needing no extra explanation

 

For my academic examiners

Would never publicly admit

Their ignorance of all I wrote,

Not understanding a word of it.

 

The secret of gaining distinction

In rarified realms of academe,

Is never stating what you think

Merely making your theory seem

 

As though it is, in all probability,

Superior to all earlier thought,

Your professors had ever had

As they lectured and they taught.

 

My theory, such a simple one,

Confounded dons high and low

For I spoke it in a foreign tongue

None admitted they didn’t know.

 

All I argued was that the limit

Of all human scientific enquiry,

Could never be mastered totally

The future being part of entirety.

 

But I declaimed my dissertation

In Virgil’s rhyming, metric Latin

Which at Oxford is assumed to be

Easy for gowns, ermine and satin.

 

So, the moral of this, my verse?

Well, at least it is meant to be.

For a ‘first’, make pompous judges

Accept, in ignorance, your theory.

AWE