POETRY

When I Heard the Learned Astronomer by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learned 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 wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.