SELECTED POEMS BY STUDENTS IN MY ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
COURSES
(CHM 255 and 256)
CHEMISTRY IS EVERYWHERE
It’s in your eyes
It’s in your hair
In all the clothes you wear
Synthetic or natural
Chemistry is there
And even if you do go bare
Chemistry’s still there
--Nicole Mazur
***
THE KEY
Organic chemistry
Affects you and me
The trick is to know the KEY
Which revolves around carbon compound chemistry
Compounds constitute the central chemicals of all living things
From genetic material to enzymes, muscles, and even proteins.
It all started several billion years ago, when the Earth existed as
methane
According to most historians
Then along came an interaction with water, ammonia, and hydrogen
To produce the atmosphere —
It all began here
The atoms combined to form more complex compounds
Like amino acids, formaldehyde, and hydrogen cyanide,
Purines, and pyrimidines all came
Then ran with the rain
Into the sea where they were stored
Until the emergence of Life brought them aboard
Amino acids, such as threonine and alanine,
Combined to form proteins
Purine and pyrimidines with sugar and phosphates in combination
Formed DNA, which gives us our genetic information.
RNA is the genetic transcription
And can act as an enzyme to catalyze reactions to completion.
The carbon atom is everywhere:
From the gasoline we use to propel our car
To the ethers that we can smell from afar.
Organic chemistry affects you and me
The trick is to know the key
Which lies in the carbon compound chemistry.
-- Christy Ramian
***
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
We study every day,
To obtain that precious degree,
Wandering through the fray
Of organic chemistry
Esters, alkanes, carbonyls, too
Fill our brains in all that we do
Memorize every term
But remember, understanding is the key
To demonstrate and affirm
Our knowledge of organic chemistry
Alcohols, ethers, aromatics, too
Fill our brains in all that we do
The professor is our guide
But we must do our part
Chem is no free ride
We must take our learning to heart
Aldols, alkyls, hemiacetals, too
Fill our brains in all that we do
Push those electrons
Through mechanisms galore
Rearrange those protons —
Convince ourselves it’s chem we adore
-- Sara Spencer
***
FUNCTIONAL GROUPS
What is an Alkane?
It is a group of hydrocarbons,
An example of which would be ethane
Whose atoms include hydrogen and carbon.
What is an alkene?
Hydrocarbons having carbon to carbon double bonds.
One of these would be ethylene,
Whose atoms also include hydrogen and carbon.
What is an alkyne?
Hydrocarbons with carbon-to-carbon triple bonds.
An example would be ethyne,
Whose atoms consist of hydrogen and carbon.
What is an arene?
Hydrocarbons made out of a special ring
An example of which is benzene,
And compounds having this six member wing
Bonded to an alkane, alkyne or alkene.
What is a haloalkane
Also known as alkyl halide?
An example would be chloroethane,
Also known as ethyl chloride,
A compound where a halogen replaces a hydrogen of an alkane.
What is al alcohol?
Organic compounds where the hydroxyl group is the characteristic of
the family;
The simplest one being methanol,
Where carbon is Sp3.
--Davita Hunter
***
CHEMISTRY NIGHTMARES
Yesterday, as I went to bed
Nightmares of halide dance came to my head
I got up and tried to read for a while
But all I saw were combinations of nitrile
I looked for sleeping pills, warming tea, and Tylenol
But there was only carboxylic acid or phenol
As I was reading, I recall
That my friends told me, don’t take organic at all
My friends told me, don’t take organic
You will definitely get panic
But I needed to take the class
And I was hoping to pass
In this class I had to learn
Carboxyls, halides, and hemiacetals
I thought studying every day was the key
To pass the exams in chemistry
Then, I went to bed again
And woke up with muscle pain
Could a nightmare
Produce lactic acid everywhere?
--Osama Abueledam
***
FOLLOW ME
Organic chemistry deals with carbon
Carbon is written with the letter “C”
You might think that couldn’t be hard
But follow me and you’ll believe
So many mechanisms, so many reactions
It’s enough to give my brain a contraction
It’s SN1 or SN2
What’s a chem. student to do?
E1 and E2, is there an E3 —
Silly me, now that can’t be
An alkane and an alkene differ by only a bond
The alkyne only one more bond still
Do you think this is getting hard yet?
I didn’t think so either, but trust me it will
Most things happen because of physical attractions
I’ve got to say I’ve seen some pretty radical reactions
An electrophilic attack on a conjugated diene
Makes a 1,4 addition; you know what I mean
Protons can be deshielded and rings can be formed
I know how you feel, at this part, too, I was bored
But the aromatics are bound by Huckel’s rule
And their synthetic applications are really cool
There are alcohols and phenols and arenes and amides
And amines and enols and ketones and aldehydes
And ethers and esters and carboxylic acid anhydrides
All of these compounds, it’s a wonder, my brain's fried
Organic chemistry has reactions and mechanisms galore
But I must say there’s some parts I adore
Like how a tree can be a tree
And it’s how we can be as different as you and me
--Jeremy Fox
***