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.

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one’s self is,
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy
walks to his Own funeral drest in his shroud,
And I or you pocketless of a dime
may purchase the pick of the earth,
And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod
Confounds the leaning of all times,
And there is no trade or employment but
the young man following it may become a hero,
And there is no object so soft but it makes
a hub for the wheel’d universe,
And I say to any man or woman,
Let your soul stand cool and composed
before a million universes.
In the faces of men and women I see God,
and in my own face in the glass,
I find letters from God dropt in the street,
and every one is sign’d by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are,
for I know that wheresoe’er I go,
Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Avatar and graphics compliments of Some photos are from: ©Inga Gunthigg 2003 All Rights Reserved Updated August 2007