ABSTRACT
Geoffrey Cantor highlights the rhetorical qualities of scientific narratives and reports – writings that actively sought to influence and persuade readers and, as he points out, 'unless we are to believe that truth is manifest we need to view rhetoric as an integral part of science'. Electrical sciences did not exist in a vacuum, and the contexts within which they emerged did not act only as background; they were key components in how electrical phenomena were investigated. This chapter considers how Maxwell responded to ideas about electricity by employing fictional concepts and the reservations he expressed about the popularisation of scientific knowledge. It examines Maxwell's poetry as an alternative form for understanding abstract concepts. Tumbling cascades of tightly-packed syllables carry the incessant mesmeric quality of a scientific chant, blending poetry with science and the technical with the artistic. Instead of science simply revealing nature, poetry exposes the aesthetic appeal that exists within the science.
