Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Two of my passions are poetry and science. I am especially interested in astronomy. In celebration of National Poetry Month and Hubble’s 23rd anniversary image, I’m posting an ESA/ NASA Hubblecast video of the Horsehead Nebula and a poem by the great Walt Whitman.
Hubble’s 23rd Anniversary Image
NOTE: I fixed the Youtube link.
When I Heard the Learn’d 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 the 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. |
A Fresh Take on the Horsehead Nebula
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I’m recommending two wonderful picture books
for those of you who have children or grandchildren:
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
with words by Walt Whitman and pictures by Loren Long
Walt Whitman: Words for America,
a wonderful biography written by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Brian Selznick
