User:JNwah/sandbox

Education, apprenticeship and poetry
Davy was born in Penzance, Cornwall in England on 17 December 1778. His family moved to Varfell, near Ludgvan, when he was nine, and in term-time Davy boarded with John Tonkin, his mother's godfather. After the Penzance school he attended Truro Grammar School in 1793 to finish his education under the Rev Dr Cardew, who, in a letter to Davies Gilbert, said dryly: "I could not discern the faculties by which he was afterwards so much distinguished." Davy said: "I consider it fortunate I was left much to myself as a child, and put upon no particular plan of study... What I am I made myself."

After Davy's father died in 1794, Tonkin apprenticed him to John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon with a practice in Penzance. Davy's indenture is dated 10 February 1795. In the apothecary's dispensary, Davy became a chemist, and a garret in Tonkin's house was where he conducted his earliest chemical experiments. Davy's friends said: "This boy Humphry is incorrigible. He will blow us all into the air." His elder sister complained of the ravages made on her dresses by corrosive substances.

As a Poet, over one hundred and sixty manuscript poems were written by Davy, majority of which are found in his personal notebooks. Most of his written poems were not published, as he chose instead to share a few of them with his friends. Only at least eight of his known poems were published. His Poems reflected his views on both his career and also his pereception of certain aspects of human life. He wrote on human endeavours and aspects of life like death, metaphysics, geoplogy, natural theology and chemistry.

While writing verses at the age of 17 in honour of his first love, he was eagerly discussing the question of the materiality of heat with his Quaker friend and mentor Robert Dunkin. Dunkin remarked: 'I tell thee what, Humphry, thou art the most quibbling hand at a dispute I ever met with in my life.' One winter day he took Davy to the Larigan River, To show him that rubbing two plates of ice together developed sufficient energy by motion, to melt them, and that after the motion was suspended, the pieces were united by regelation. It was a crude form of analogous experiment exhibited by Davy in the lecture-room of the Royal Institution that elicited considerable attention. As professor at the Royal Institution, Davy repeated many of the ingenious experiments he learned from his friend and mentor, Robert Dunkin.

Even though he initially started writing his poems albeit haphazardly, as a reflection of his views on his career, and on life generally, most of his final poems concentrated more on immortality and death. This was after he started experiencing failing health and a decline both in health and career.