Joshua Bloch recited the following poem, which he also wrote, at the conclusion of the "TS-3072: Forthcoming Java Programming Language Features" 2003 JavaOne converence session. (Included here with permission.)
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright Like a geek who works all night What new-fangled bit or byte Could ease the hacker's weary plight? To the most despised cast We'll bid a fond farewell at last With generics' burning spear The need for cast will disappear While Iterators have their uses They sometimes strangle us like nooses With enhanced-for's deadly ray Iterator's kept at bay When from collections ints are drawn Wrapper classes make us mourn When Tiger comes, we'll shed no tears We'll autobox them in the ears The int-enum will soon be gone like a foe we've known too long With typesafe-enum's mighty power Our foe will bother us no more And from the constant interface we shall inherit no disgrace With static import at our side, our joy will be unqualified And as for noble metadata I'll have to sing its praises later Its uses are so numerous To give their due, I'd miss the bus Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright Like a geek who works all night What new-fangled bit or byte Could ease the hacker's weary plight? (With apologies to William Blake)