The Duchess Who Thought Too Much ©2026 by ContempoJedi [Verse 1] The Royal Society sits in a row, With Boyle and with Hooke and with nowhere to go. The doors swing apart with a thunderous crack, And Madge enters in with the world on her back. Her dress is a poem, her wig is a cloud, She’s thinking in colors and speaking out loud. She’s written of atoms, she’s written of stars, And she’s bored by a world fenced in by laws. While Boyle counts his bubbles and Hooke draws a flea, She’s asking what thinking in matter might be. [Chorus] All hail the Duchess! The Queen of the Ink! Who’s teaching the scholars how to truly think. She’s “Mad” because “Brilliant” is not in the set, Of the words for a woman they haven't tamed yet! With a pen like a rapier, a mind like a gale, She’s steering her ship through a kingdom of males. Let the gentlemen whisper and grumble and glare, There’s a new kind of magic in Cavendish Square. [Verse 2] She’s crafted a world in a “Blazing” new land, Where bear-men and bird-men obey her command. While they’re weighing a pebble or counting a fly, She’s building a bridge to the edge of the sky. “I’d rather be mistress of my own small soul, Than a fragment of theirs in a secondary role.” So she buttons her bodice and powders her nose, To fight every battle in theatrical clothes. [Bridge] For a man with a hobby is “seeking the light,” But a woman with logic is “quite a sad sight.” If she won't be a shadow, they’ll call her a freak, For the crime of a voice that’s too sturdy to squeak. They’re measuring atoms to see what is true, While missing the giant who’s walking on through. [Spoken] "Gentlemen," she says with a smile like a spark, (pause) "Your microscopes work… but your thinking is dark." [Final Chorus All hail the Duchess! The Queen of the Ink! Who’s teaching the scholars how to truly think. Let the scholars take notes while the centuries roll, For the mind has no gender, and thought has no role. With a pen like a rapier, a mind like a gale, She’s steering her ship through a kingdom of males. Let them peer at a flea through their polished glass well, She imagines whole worlds… [Outro] For nature thinks too, and she knows it well.
