A long time ago A time quite known There was a man Who was seeking the truth Who's wish was to understand The path drawn by the hand The way of the wandering
He wished Hence his truth Stained Circles he thought Was what the hand would draw All wandering quite agreed But one did not He was defiant Back he went Forth later Lunacy was inherent The way he tread The hand the man doubted Had but made a mistake A mistake Or just a perspective Shall remain unknown A circle Eccentric Was defined Two centers It had Perplexed our man Circles he thought Defined perfection
Had it not been this wanderer Who chose to defy
Our man He would have been kept Away From the truth
The truth That eccentric Are the paths That all who wander Follow Its only the perspective That defines the lunacy The eccentricity The path of the wanderer.
The hand Could have made a mistake But who knows He too might have been Eccentric At least a little bit.
The poem is about Kepler's quest to understand planetary orbits, which he thought should be circular. The to and fro movement of mars (also loop the loop motion) didn't fit the hypothesis of circular orbits. In the end he had to abandon his idea of circles to ellipses, which fit the anomalous movement of mars perfectly.