Wednesday, September 21, 2011

perfect silence

I enjoy the perfect silence of astronomy.

Apparently Walt Whitman did too as conveyed in When I Heard the Learned 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 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.
Despite knowing much of the math and science behind celestial objects, I still enjoy the power of their silence.

No comments: