Read this statement by C.K. Williams about Walt Whitman.For a young poet, reading Whitman is sheer revelation, sheer wonder, a delight bordering on, then plunging into disbelief. How could all this have come to pass? . . . These countless images of daily life, of common life made uncommon, and the most boldly uncommon made jarringly intimate? This is best reflected in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” when
A
Whitman hears the astronomer’s lectureB
Whitman looks at charts and diagramsC
Whitman becomes tired and sick and wanders offD
Whitman goes out at night and looks at the stars