Mid-Week Poetry Break

moonman
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

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 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.

~ Walt Whitman
1819 - 1892