Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling,

In mystic force and magic spelling.

Celestial sprites elucidate,

All my own striving can't relate.

What Am I ?

This is actually technically not a riddle...
That is a rhyme that was designed to remember the value of pi (3.14...) The amount of letters in each word represents the different values of pi (Sir [3], I [1] bear [4] a [1] rhyme [5]...)

It even keeps going for all the 31 first numbers in pi:

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic force, and magic spelling
Celestial sprites elucidate
All my own striving can't relate
Or locate they who can cogitate
And so finally terminate. Finis.

Posted by John on 2003-10-09 21:40:06