Leaving Work, I Discover a Metaphor of My Day

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.


When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, by Walt Whitman


A colleague came upon me taking this photo as we headed to the parking lot in the snow. At the time I couldn't easily explain why I found the scene so striking, and we both laughed together. Looking at the image now it seems so obvious!