78 When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
Walt 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 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.
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman was published in Leaves of Grass. It is in the public domain and was accessed from Project Gutenberg at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1322/1322-h/1322-h.htm#link2H_4_0002