Learned Biologist by Kimberly Coverly

Learned Biologist by Kimberly Coverly

When I heard the learned biologist,

When the cells were drawn intricately before me,

When I was shown the structures of functioning machines,

When I, sitting, listened to the lecture in the hall,

How quickly I became tired and dozed off,

Walking silently to the next class,

Marveling at the complexity of my limbs.

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When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman

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 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.