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.





