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…

Walt Whitman’s «When I heard the learn’d astronomer» is an enduring celebration of the imagination. Here Whitman’s wise words are beautifully recast by New York Times #1 best-selling illustrator Loren Long to tell the story of a boy’s fascination with the heavens. Toy rocket in hand, the finds himself in a crowded, stuffy lecture hall. At first he is amazed by the charts and the figures. But when he finds himself overwhelmed by the pontificactions of an academic, he retreats to the great outdoors and does something as universal as the stars themselves…