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. Walt Whitman, 1865

That does not keep me from having a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.
                           - Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother

Image enlargable at Mark Harden's Artchive
The Starry Night, 1889
Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/4 in.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Walt Whitman Archive

for educational use only by students of D. Reiss