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If an astronaut lands on the surface of Mars And the media writes up the story, They will start all the names of the planets and stars Upper case, to acknowledge their glory. DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL! This poem copyright 2007 by Robert H. Beeman. But upon his return, as he stands on the ground Of his own native planet of birth, The reporters will write that he now can be found on our poor little lower-case earth. DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL! This poem copyright 2007 by Robert H. Beeman. For the ancients, you see, had no clue that we live On a planet of medium girth. So an upper-case status they never did give To our poor little lower-case earth. DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL! This poem copyright 2007 by Robert H. Beeman. Yet we should know better: Copernicus taught Earth's a planet, and certainly worth The upper case "E" that so many have sought, For our poor little lower-case earth. DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL! This poem copyright 2007 by Robert H. Beeman. But life isn't fair, and some rules never bend, So I'll choose to regard it with mirth - The illogical spelling that may never end, For our poor little lower case earth. - R. H. Beeman © 2007. All Rights Reserved. |
Paul Brians, Professor of English at Washington State University, in his list of Common Errors in English sums up the rules for the capitalization of "earth" as follows:
Soil is lower-case "earth." And in most uses even the planet itself remains humbly in lower-case letters: "peace on earth." But in astronomical contexts, the Earth comes into its own with a proud initial capital, and in science fiction it drops the introductory article and becomes "Earth," just like Mars and Venus. A similar pattern applies to Earth's satellite: "shine on, harvest moon," but "from the Earth to the Moon." Because other planets also have moons, it never loses its article.This poem was written on Earth, and is in tradidional ballad form in 4-line stanzas of 4, 3, 4, 3 anapestic feet with ABAB rhyme scheme.
It is very discouraging to see one's own poetry reproduced somewhere and labeled as "Author Unknown". Inevitably, that is what happens when people copy poems and redistribute them. Eventually the attribution to the author and the copyright notice is lost.
My only reward for writing this is the 15 milliseconds of fame I receive from having my name here. Don't deprive me of that.