this is one of my favorite Whitman poems:
When I heard the Learn’d AstronomerWHEN 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; 5
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 came back and edited the poem.. did you notice, each line got longer, and drearier, till you got to line four.
and line four, is very long. it drones on like the learn'd astronomer.. each line every worder, creating sense of dreary boring words, piled one on top of an other..
break the line, and you lose a lot of that.. the first word of every line is bold now.
but i was asked to edit, and i did, WO'N, whitman it doing loop de loops in his grave, i'll have you know.!
