Dear Ada, Countess of Lovelace,
I'm writing to let you know
That you are still remembered from
Two hundred years ago.
How you must have suffered,
Being so misunderstood,
In an era when females were asked to be
Subservient and 'good'!
You must have had a splendid brain;
You were really an inventor,
But barred from university...
You were not allowed to enter.
A woman studying mathematics!
How absolutely mad!
All of which makes your history
Unbelievably sad.
You were fascinated by Babbage
And his 'analytical machine',
The likes of which the people
Had never, never seen.
The 'machine' was the first computer!
It was Babbage's design,
And you, young Ada Lovelace,
Thought it extremely fine.
You wrote notes on the analytical machine
And algorithms too,
Explaining how the engine worked
And the things that it could do.
A Computer Programmer, you were,
And the very, very first!
You must have been so excited
That you felt that you could burst!
You looked into the future
And imagined so much more!
You felt the analytical machine
Could do more than just keep score!
Babbage called you Enchantress of Numbers;
A name that suited you;
If only you were alive today,
How much more work would you do!
But you died, unsung, at thirty-six,
And no-one recalled your name.
But I am writing to tell you
That you have achieved your fame.
For whenever computer history
Is mentioned nowadays
Ada Lovelace is mentioned too
And her name is heaped with praise.
*
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A Simple Alphabet
MANGO
I once found a magical mango
That knew how to dance a fandango.
I said to him 'Speed
Is what I really need!
Are you going as fast as you can go?'
*
