Walt Whitman, in his classic Leaves
of Grass, wrote a poem entitled, When I
Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d
astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were
arranged 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 and
tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I
wonder’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air,
and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the
stars.
Whitman preferred natural,
aesthetic beauty over the hard work required by science to reveal natural
aesthetic beauty which would have been lost to our naked eyes except for the
work of science. I expressed this view and more in the following poem.
A Wish for Walt ----------
By Larry Schafer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the measures and calculations argued
forth the conclusions and theories.
When advancements yielded ways of exploring
both the large and small worlds far from the naked eye,
When I sitting heard the lecturing
with much applause,
I wondered if the applause was for
the astronomer, for science, or for the wonders of God and his creation.
How soon I saddened in realizing
that Walt and so many others have failed to see science as a portal revealing
the nature and work of the Creator.
Till rising and gliding out I
wondered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air,
and from time to time,
Thanked God for science and silently
sung “When I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made; I
see the stars ….. “How Great Thou Art.”
