1635 Magnetic declination

Magnetic declination

• You see, wherever and whenever you look,
• a different magnetic declination
• since the magnetic north pole drifts
• about the northern regions of the earth
• and has never in recorded history
• coincided with the point above which
• the stars appear to revolve.

True north

• In this world, not only in an ideal world,
• a position that cannot be easily reached
• may yet be calculated, circumscribed, realized
• by imperfect beings with crude instruments.
• Mountains rise, continents move, glaciers
• carve bays and valleys, but this position
• never varies, or varies by only a hair.

Polar drift

• North and south magnetic poles
• move in different directions
• at different rates,
• suggesting Earth’s magnetic field,
• the imperfect bundle of many fields,
• is fragmented, not bent.

Grivation

• Don’t let them fool you,
• but whom can you believe?
• It doesn’t dip toward the ground,
• but turns to the right or to the left.
• Your brain, it turns out, is easily deceived
• when given only your point of view.
• Gullible eyes, gullible ears,
• and lazy bones often lead a ship astray.