Monday, February 23, 2009

Browsing through Whitman, I came across this poem that everyone knows. So I read it again and decided that this really is the sort of poem that everyone should know. And maybe you would like to read it again also.

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

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.

Dinner tonight: beef noodle soup, cole slaw, chocolate ice-cream sundaes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Whitman.

When the 11th graders read excerpts from "Leaves of Grass" this year, one girl approached me and said "He wrote a whole book of these poems? I want to read them!"

I am also lobbying to get LoG included in our canon as a fulllength work, like a novel or play.

Rave on, Dawn.

Dawn Potter said...

And of course, you're going to have to deal with the homosexuality in LoG. And of course, the students need--and want--to deal with it. And of course, somebody on the school board will complain. And of course, your administration will suggest that you "tone down" old Walt. Pisses me off. As far as I'm concerned, a unit on Whitman is worth a thousand squishy Interpersonal Relations classes.