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 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."

52 likes

Source: Walt Whitman (2015). “Drum-Taps: The Complete 1865 Edition”, p.42, New York Review of Books

About the author

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Poet, Essayist

Walt Whitman was an American poet and essayist, known for his groundbreaking work 'Leaves of Grass,' which celebrated individuality and nature.

All quotes by Walt Whitman →

Same author

More quotes by Walt Whitman

See all →
Walt Whitman Poet, Essayist

"This is what you should do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem."

Read quote