Free Verse · Nature
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
by Walt Whitman · 1865
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
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.
This poem is in the public domain.
“When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer” by Walt Whitman — quilloak.com/poems/when-i-heard-the-learnd-astronomer
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