First Thoughts
1. When you think of images in the world that give you joy or that fill you with wonder, do you look at ordinary things, as Nye does, or at cosmic things, as Whitman does? Or do you find wonder in abstractions like math (or astronomy)?
Shaping Interpretations
2. What do Nye’s particular images tell you about her life and where she lives?
3. What scenes do you see and share in Whitman’s poem?
4. What do you think sick means in Whitman’s poem—what was bothering the speaker as he listened to the astronomer? At the end of the poem, what part of the speaker has been restored by the “mystical” starry night?
Challenging the Text
5. Suppose you, the learn’d astronomer, came upon Whitman’s poem a week after your lecture. How would you respond to the poet?
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