Beauty and the Bare

 Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem about Euclid is as bare as the beauty she is describing in his proof. Let me explain what I think Edna and I mean by bare. I believe bare is referring to the lack of obstruction in order to see the bare bones. Edna sees beauty in Euclid without any farce, excess, or drama. Simple shapes without intricacies. And she finds it fascinating that some can look at his work once and not study it for some time. Edna finds  Euclids’ work akin to art, simple in its appearance yet something which takes time to understand. This is why she finds beauty bare in his work. 

Those who have studied mathematics see Euclids' work as the foundation of what we know. Euclid's work is also been popular because of the contention of some of his proof such as postulate 5 and assumptions he used yet never defined. I never personally cared for geometry until I took an undergrad course on Euclidean geometry. And to some sense, I agree with Edna, which is that you must sit with his work for some time to understand. As not all of his proofs are done so without some assumption he has made.