Talk:Siphonaptera (poem)

Cleanup
Why and where does this article need cleanup? How should it be cleaned up? Hyacinth (talk) 02:26, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

It wasn't me who indicated a clean-up was necessary, but it would be very useful if there was an attempt at attribution of the poem, or at least an earliest know publication date and source. 67.70.149.103 (talk) 04:39, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

Meteorology?
I don't think the characterisation of the viscosity version of this is accurate at all. --Oolong (talk) 14:13, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I was the one who added that; I think Richardson himself said that his poem was derived from the other one but I don't remember where I came across it and can't be sure my memory's right. — Soap — 02:14, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Whirl or whorl?
I added the poem with "whorl", and someone recently changed it to "whirl". Since I was sloppy, I never added my source, which was a meteorology textbook that I may or may not still have which I no longer remember. Sorry. But we certainly don't need to list two versions, so I'm happy with it the way it is. To get back to the comment above, I would never have known there was any connection between the meteorology poem and the Siphonaptera if not for that book, so if that is still in question I will do my best to locate it. — Soap — 19:08, 31 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Just checked with a meteorology textbook and it uses whirl and has no indication that it's a derivative, so it essentially is the same as the source we have now. As I said, I'm not sure where I copied it from but it seems that the whorl version is quite common.  I think it is best left the way it is now. — Soap — 19:12, 31 May 2019 (UTC)


 * The source now cited does indeed have 'whirl'. MichaelMaggs (talk) 15:36, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Article's a mess
Who calls the poem "The Siphonaptera"? And Augustus De Morgan wrote it. This article's a bunch of OR and SYNTH.  E Eng  06:51, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Should be better now. MichaelMaggs (talk) 04:52, 14 December 2017 (UTC)
 * It's Latin for "flea". 51.9.47.247 (talk) 14:31, 14 June 2018 (UTC)


 * How did De Morgan write it 44 years after his death? Or is there a discrepancy in the date? —C.Fred (talk) 16:56, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Everything's all bolloxed up. That was the second edition; first edition was 1872. Anyway, I've revamped everything. Please check me. EEng 19:18, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

"Siphonaptera" title
It's not easy to find a reliable source stating that de Morgan's rhyme is known as "Siphonaptera". The most obvious candidate would seem to be The Poetry of John Milton (2015) by Gordon Teskey, page 480, but he states in a footnote on page 601 that his information came from Wikipedia. I have referenced a journal article from 2019, "Who watches the watchmen and the problem of recursive flea bites" in the absence of anything better as most online references are personal blogs etc. I can't find anything online dated before than 2006, when the article first appeared here. MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:45, 30 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I think we can live with this source for the time being. Thanks for all your great finishing touches! EEng 23:26, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Did Richardson build upon Swift or upon De Morgan?
The source of Richardson's poem does not state whether he was inspired by Swift or by De Morgan. Which was it? Actually, the article is ambiguous on this point, perhaps intentionally. :-) —Bromskloss (talk) 15:04, 6 October 2021 (UTC)
 * You're correct - it intentionally does not specify. Don't know of any source which states that. MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:24, 6 October 2021 (UTC)
 * We can't know, and I will most likely never find that book I was talking about, but I strongly suspect he was modeling the poem after DeMorgan's work, which was also scientific and may have been more familiar to Richardson than the older original poem. It's also worth noting that the meteorology and flea poems have the same rhythm  down to the syllable level, .... it just isnt obvious at first sight because the lines are split differently.  — Soap — 21:52, 20 December 2022 (UTC)