I was recently challenged, in jest, to write a poem on closures. I was waxing poetic on the idea of closures as method “templates,” and Chad called me on it.
I could have answered Chad’s joke with a haiku, but who can truly contain their love for closures in only a few lines?
Instead, I figured an Italian Sonnet would be much more punishing for all involved, and somewhere where I could truly showcase my inherent nerdiness.
So, without any more ado…
A shame, it seems me, that closures still
Are not lauded, not given their just due;
Objects rock, but no paradigm’s so true,
That should eschew the useful closure’s thrill.
The outer scope, the fortress on a hill
Is not opaque; the closure has a view
Of variables assigned before— into
The closure goes a binding’s heart and will.
Closures seem like method templates; see
Filled with variables that are in turn contained,
This stencil used to fill a binding’s dreams,
No banal limits, no local scope constrained.
So pivotal, these functional gems agree
With metaprogramming and other utopian schemes.
