WALT WHITMAN OBVIOUSLY THOUGHT HE HAD A MONOPOLY ON WONDER

or:

I SOUND MY BARBARIC “YEP!”

 

 

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,
    subtract, shop, price comparison, no-return policy, cold-
    water wash only, author of the famous book on the Paris
    Commune to visit store Wednesday—um, sorry, 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;
When I was surprised to look upon
An astronomer, sitting quietly beside me;
And he was also looking up
And he had been there for a little over fifteen minutes before I
    showed up.
Punk.