[Stylist] Periodic Table Poem

[Jackie]

Barbara,
Okay, you have succeeded in driving me crazy!
I listened first for line length and rhyming. Then I counted syllables. Then
I tried to visualize the columns and lines across the table.
Then, because, though blind, I am still a visual learner, I started dancing
to get my mind off your chart!
Seriously, this is quite a feat, and a real marathon of a poem.
I think you should send it to the Chemistry department at Iowa State College
at Ames, Iowa, and suggest that all of their beginning students spend the
quarter studying this poem. It makes more sense than how I was taught the
elements.

Jacqueline Williams

Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.
     Jenny Xie


-----Original Message-----
From: Stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
HAMMEL via Stylist
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2019 10:54 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Cc: Barbara HAMMEL <poetlori8 at msn.com>
Subject: [Stylist] Periodic Table Poem

Ok!  I finished that crazy poem!  Well, it may not be totally done but at
least it's a draft.  I'll attach it and post it in the body.  If you don't
like - or           can't read - the attachment, each line is supposed to
have fourteen syllables but there is no set meter.

Barbara Hammel

  PERIODIC TABLE POEM
    by Barbara Hammel

The Periodic Table looks so crazy at first glance, But there's structure in
that colorful, chaotic expanse.
Atomic number orders them from one to one-one-eight.
Before we delve in deeper, there are things we must get straight.

Each row is called a period, each column is a group, Row properties vary,
columns not so much, in this troupe.
The elements across each row have one to seven shells, But only scientists
need know where each electron dwells.
The columns tell us what elements have to gain or lose, In the number of
valence electrons, the ones they use For bonding with each other 'cuz that's
how they interact To form everything in our universe and that's a fact.
As you go down the periods each shell gets broken down Into more subshells
these little electrons spin aroun'.
This is why, of s-, p-, d- and f-block you sometimes hear, But it's way too
complicated to get in for this sphere.
All we need know, row 1 and 2 are s- and in between
3 to 12 are d-, f- below, p- 13 to 18.

Hydrogen and Helium are atop the left and right They sit alone, above the
rest, because they are so light.
The lanthanides and actinides are rows that sit below But as this poem
rambles on you'll learn where they should go.

With one valence electron, alkalis are in group one, They react to air and
water with quite an explosion.
In this group are Hydrogen, Lithium, and Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium,
Cesium, Francium.
Group 2 is called the alkalines, they're calmer by a tad, They have two
valence electrons, so don't get quite as mad.
This group consists of Beryllium and Magnesium, Calcium and Strontium,
Barium and Radium.

Still with 2 valence electrons, in 3 to 12 we see The transition metals
which have good conductivity.
Group 3 has Scandium, Yttrium, and the Lanthanides In period 6 and in 7 are
the Actinides.
They sit below because more shells mean more subshells to dock Electorns,
making them f-block, but the rest are d-block.
If these two rows of fifteen had been added at this place This Periodic
Table would take up a LOT of space.
The Lanthanides are first with Lanthanum, and Cerium, Followed by
Praseodymium, Neodymium, And Promethium, Samarium, and Europium, Next to
Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Holmium and Erbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, The
final one of our upper group is Lutetium.
Below are ,actinides with Actinium, Thorium, Protactinium, Uranium, and
Neptunium, Plutonium's next to Americium, Curium, Berkelium, and
Californium, Einsteinium, With ,fermium, Mendelevium and Nobelium, Then the
last of this lower group is Lawrencium.

Group 4 has Titanium, Zirconium, Hafnium, And Rtherfordium. There's Group 5
with Vanadium, Which is above Niobium, Tantalum, Dubnium, Then Group 6 comes
along with Chromium, Molybdenum, Tungsten, and Seaborgium. 7 starts with
Manganese, Technetium, Rhenium, Bohrium. On to 8, please, Iron's above
Ruthenium, Osmium, Hassium, Group 9 is next with Cobalt, Rhodium, Iridium,
Meitnerium. Then 10 with Nickel and Palladium In the spaces above Platinum,
and Darmstadtium.
11's got Copper, Silver, Gold and Roentgenium,
12 has Zinc, Cadmium, Mercury, Copernicium.

Before we meet the elements these tricky groups contain Let's discuss what
makes their family members somewhat the same.
The first group over here we call the Boron Family, They're called the
Icosagens, with valence electrons three.
Next are the crystallogens, or tetrels, because they have four Valence
electro ns ready to bond with any four more.
Group 15 are the Pnicogens, and five they have in play, And 16 are the
Chalcogens with 6 to go or stay.
At this end of the table divisions are not as neat, For instance, the
metalloids meander a stair-step street.
                `
13 has one with Boron, then down to Aluminum, Gallium, Indium, Thallium, and
Nihonium.
Group 14's head is Carbon, then two metalloids sneak in:
Silicon and Germanium, then below them is tin And Lead and Flerovium. 15
leads with Nitrogen, And Phosphorus, our two: Arsenic, Antimony, then
Bismuth, and Moscovium. 16 will complete our stair But first Oxygen, Sulfur,
and Selenium are there.
Our last two metalloids, Tellurium, Polonium, And the final one of the group
is Livermorium.

Halogens need one electron to make their shells complete So 17, like Group
1, has a temper not so sweet.
This volatile group has Fluorine and Chlorine and Bromine, And underneath
are Iodine, Astatine, Tennessine.
Group 18, on the right, are the aerogens, or noble Gases, with full outer
shells which keeps them quite immobile.
This group includes Helium, Neon, Argon, and Krypton, Xenon and Radon and
last of all is Oganesson.

Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
10