I start with a promise that glitters like gold, Each step up the ladder, a story retold. Bring two, bring four, let ambition ignite, The top grows fat while the base bears the weight. Stones stack on trust, not mortar or grit, Wide at the bottom, but narrow where it sits. What shape am I, built on belief and desire, A monument raised while the many perspire?

He was a hero Hrothgar needed help. Grendel on men did gorge The Geats greatest came to slay him. The monster’s mother sought revenge In the lair she made he showed her mortality. For his courage the Geats made him king He kills the dragon but receives a deadly wound in kind.

I am made of those who never fought, In wars I started, lost and won. Plain turned to whim of liquid thought, I hold all things the black has done. I wait in silence, thin and fair, Through fire and water, earth and air.

Deep below, dark and cold, Monsters lurk these halls untold. Warriors enter to face these fiends, And leave as heroes on their journey’s end.

Thales of Miletus studied some aspects with amber and with certain types of rocks. Maxwell put it all together in four tidy equations. It is the dominant force in the interactions of atoms and molecules. Start with how democracies select their leaders. Next is a legal acronym to stop a harmful act. Next is slang for something wonderful, then the thing a basketball goes through. Finish with the singular of are and a single letter by itself.