When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer...

[fajrdrako]

By Walt Whitman (American, 1819–1892):

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 the 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.

Comments

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Heh. So in-focus, he was. Whitman. (I see again how I first came to write in the extended, involved, and possibly convoluted way that I prefer: found Leaves of Grass at age 13!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Leaves of Grass is a wonderful thing to find at any age, but 13 is perfect. I love this one, because it's so good at finding the right focus, so deliciously Zen.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Walt Whitman was on the cover of a magazine that I sorted at work earlier tonight... the something something. The Weekly Standard, that was it. A drawing of him sitting on the grass leaning against a tree, barefoot, with an open box of Whitman Sampler sitting next to him, which was cute. I picked up the bundle of magazines, saw the eyes and the beard, said immediately, "Walt Whitman! Cool," and my coworker Jim said, "Huh? How do you know that?" So I grinned and pointed out the Whitman's Chocolates box and also "bare feet for walking through the leaves of grass!" I think Jim kind of got it, then. He reads a lot, but mostly history and politics.

I wish I'd been able to photocopy that cover. The drawing gave him such a wonderful cast. A very Zen facial expression, for sure. Maybe go online and find it!

Whitman is my perfect compassionate nihilist. He's a fringe-dweller who thinks that there should be no "mainstream," if only all of us would wake up to our amazing uniqueness. What a mind, what a consciousness.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Walt Whitman was on the cover of a magazine that I sorted at work earlier tonight...

How very cool!

A drawing of him sitting on the grass leaning against a tree, barefoot, with an open box of Whitman Sampler sitting next to him, which was cute.

How adorable!

"bare feet for walking through the leaves of grass!"

I love it.

I wish I'd been able to photocopy that cover.

I found it. This one, right?



I love Google.

He's a fringe-dweller who thinks that there should be no "mainstream,

No quaint categories.

if only all of us would wake up to our amazing uniqueness.

A good lesson.

What a mind, what a consciousness.

And what a way with words.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Now that is very fine. I don't think I have ever read any Whitman before... how is that possible?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

how is that possible?

I'm sure the world is full of poets I haven't read and should have and would love if only I knew about them. Which is a good reason to keep reading! and posting.

[filkferengi]

Have you downloaded Sara Teasdale's books of poetry over on Gutenberg Project yet? Most of her poems are short, lyrical, and about nature; I think you'd like them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll go and have a look.