Newton didn’t discover the prism trick. It was something that was known about well before

Newton didn’t discover the prism trick. It was something that was known about well before his time, a trick of the light that refracted and splintered, casting a rainbow across the room in a celebration of colour. The thing was, before Newton, everyone thought it was the prism’s fault. Some impurity in the glass was causing it to warp and influence the light, some disgusting smudge making the purity of white into something lesser.

It wasn’t until he came along and decided to take another prism, lay it in the blue, and see what happens when blue light went into the prism, that they figured out that the light wasn’t being tarnished by the glass, but unlocked. All the colours were already there, through the rainbow, but they were hidden from view. 

You’re pure. You’re innocent. You’ve got the whiteness about you. You’re bright, too, but I won’t let you realise that just yet. Instead I’m going to refract you, split you into all your colours, and let the world see. Or maybe just the bedroom walls. That’s what Newton did, anyway. Pull the curtains closed but for a pinprick, and see what he could see. 

He was a genius, but I’m not quite there. I’m more happy to be the tool in the experiment, if you’re happy to be the focus.