Arthur Clement Hilton's Reflection on Math and Overcoming Exhaustion ✍️

I've really done enough of sums, <br /> I've done so very many, <br /> That now instead of doing sum <br /> I'd rather not do any. <br /> I've toiled until my fingers are <br /> With writing out of joint; <br /> And even now of Decimals <br /> I cannot see the point. <br /> Subtraction to my weary mind <br /> Brings nothing but distraction, <br /> And vulgar and improper I <br /> Consider every fraction. <br /> <br /> "Practice makes perfect," so they say. <br /> It may be true. The fact is <br /> That I unhappily am not <br /> Yet perfect in my Practice. <br /> <br /> Discount is counted troublesome <br /> By my unlearned pate; <br /> For cubic root I entertain <br /> A strongly rooted hate. <br /> <br /> The heathen worship stocks and stones; <br /> My pious soul it shocks <br /> To be instructed thus to take <br /> An Interest in Stocks. <br /> <br /> Of Algebra I fear I have <br /> A very vague impression; <br /> I study hard, but fail to make <br /> Harmonical Progression. <br /> <br /> In Euclid too I always climb <br /> The Asses' Bridge with pain; <br /> A superficies to me <br /> Is anything but plane. <br /> <br /> "Apply yourself," my master said, <br /> When I my woes confided, <br /> "And, when you multiply, bestow <br /> Attention undivided." <br /> <br /> Oh, if one master tries so hard <br /> Tyrannical to be, <br /> How out of all Proportion I <br /> Should find a Rule of Three.<br /><br />Arthur Clement Hilton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mathematics/