> But actually treating poem as an algebra problem really is taking it too far. Not really, a lot of poems (the symbolists come to mind) are actually meant to

> But actually treating poem as an algebra problem really is taking it too far. Not really, a lot of poems (the symbolists come to mind) are actually meant to be treated as semantic puzzles or mathematical problems. Lewis Carroll is perhaps the most famous - and one of the greatest example of the intersection of maths, logic and poetry. One of the best poetical analysis I had the pleasure of reading in recent years is a very probabilistic (rather than algebraic) reading of the French poet Mallarme, who was himself fascinated by randomness and probabilities: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/book-of-numbers-meillassoux-on-mallarme/ https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/book-of-numbers-meillass... > The Number and the Siren argues that there is a Number at the heart of the poem [...] and the book cycles through a lot of textual analysis, along with close readings of related poems (themselves encrypted with numbers) Highly recommended read.