When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

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. 

Sometimes creation itself teaches better than the most learned teachers. ^_^