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. —Walt Whitman —When I heard the Learn?d Astronomer (Bartleby)
I never noticed the “unaccountable” pun in the fifth line.
Boy, it’s been a long time since I read this one, but it is so perfectly appropriate to have seen it again today. Thank you!