Galileo Galilei

I’m certain that you’ve heard some people say a certain name,

And if you’ve ever said it then you know it’s fun to say,

But do you know the story of the man behind the name?

This brilliant man whose name was Galileo Galilei.

Scientist, mathematician, and philosopher by trade,

Inventor, too, and engineer was Mr. Galilei,

Such genius and ambition this Italian man displayed,

It’s not much of a mystery why he quickly rose to fame.

So many great discoveries and so many things he made,

Improved upon the telescope to look out into space,

Four giant moons near Jupiter he found and even they,

Known as the Galilean moons now share his charming name.

These moons--Europa, Callisto, Io, and Ganymede, [Gani-meed]

(I know these names in Ancient Greek are kind of hard to read),

Were huge in size but bigger was the impact that they made,

For they would shape the course of history for Galilei.

These were the first of objects to ever be found in space,

That orbited another planet in a distant place,

These were the moons that Galileo found that fateful day,

By looking through a special telescope that he had made.

“At last,” he thought, “This here is proof that finally let’s me claim,

Not everything revolves around the Earth, in fact I’ll state:

The Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way!”

But almost everybody else had something else to say:

“How ludicrous, preposterous, and utterly insane,

Some other guy Copernicus I think once said the same!

Take back your bold beliefs, your mad remarks, and silly claims,

Or those of us in charge will firmly put you in your place!”

But his ideas changed the world and those that were afraid,

Locked Galileo in his house and there they made him stay,

But not before he wrote a book so critically acclaimed,

That made it sure his legacy and name would never fade.

For now we know how true they were, the many things he claimed,

The Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way,

So now you know the story of the man behind the name,

This brilliant man whose name was Galileo Galilei.