Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (Poems I Noticed 2)
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- A reading of Walt Whitman's poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Part of "Poems I Noticed," a series of occasional videos in which Dr. Jackson Crawford shares a short poem worth noticing.
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The Jackson Crawford / Breaking Bad crossover that we didn't know we needed!
I met one of Dr Crawford's fellow cowpokes in Wyoming. She was a cowgirl and a "learned astronomer," who went on to run the Jelm Observatory and write a PhD dissertation, but only a freshman at the time. We went out one night so she could show me the stars in the clear mountain air of the Wyoming high country, a sight unmatched anywhere. I laid down upon my back in the mountain meadow so I could see the stars and an expected meteor shower. Somehow we never got to the stars in the sky that night. We talked for hours and the only stars I saw were shining in her glowing green eyes. It started to get cold so I suggested we head back to Laramie but she was tougher than a city girl and stayed out until she got what she wanted from me. I kissed my son's mother for the first time that night, roughly 30 years ago, and I kissed her again about five minutes ago. Sure, she is an educated lady refined and demure, but inside she is still the untamed daughter of Skaði. She would ski the backcountry with a small pack and bow accompanied by her husky/wolf mix. I love my learned astronomer!
Whitman is always a plus. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing. 'A Clear Midnight' is my personal favorite by Whitman. Thank you again.
Amazing video as always Dr. Crawford
:O
This is by far my most favorite poem! The be in love with the mysteries of the cosmic soup...
Just love the mountain and cloud in the background :)
By 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.
Some things just have to be experienced.
More and more clues that we have here an educated chap, familiar with cultural inheritances we all can share, enjoy, be enriched by and which can provoke us into our own art and creativity. Walt would be happy to watch this vid, to be sure.
The landscape in this video is particularly stunning. Something about those clouds hanging over the mountains really give it a sense of scope.
I’m from this area, if you ever want to visit Wyoming I think he shot this video somewhere on top of Split Rock looking south towards the Ferris Mountains. The Ferris always have the coolest clouds rolling over them!
I was wondering if you could comment on the saying "dead man's last bed" vs "dead man's last breath". I have read that part of the soul was thought to be released upon death in a man's last breath, but are there any references or phrases that would suggest the term "dead man's last bed" would have been a more appropriate saying in the Viking age?
Thanks for sharing. Whitman is a favourite of mine, along with Emily Dickinson.
Whitman's 'learn'd astronomer' reminds me of a quote from Werner Heisenberg: 'What we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.'
He was quite an evocative wordsmith indeed
Nice video
With all due respect (and, Dr. Jackson, I do love your presentations on this channel, I really do), but I had this involuntary reaction upon hearing Whitman's poem: "When I heard the learn'd philologer"...
I love the wonder of the night sky, but that doesn't mean I don't want to learn everything I can about astronomy and especially, astrophysics, as well as how languages change and evolve while also, allowing them to be for me a source of wonder apart from any linguistic or philological considerations.
Oh, well. Maybe Walt was just having a bad day (night) or something.