when I heard

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.

~  Walt Whitman