Sunday, September 14, 2008

Whitman: When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer...


WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;  
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;  
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;  
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,  
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,  
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

See also:

No comments:

Post a Comment