From
Leaves of Grass, 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.