Science vs. Nature: A Personal Response to Walt Whitman's "The Learn'd Astronomer"

I do not believe that science and nature are two separate entities, but that they intertwine to create the world as a whole. In the poem, "The Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman, the speaker sharply divides the two, leading the reader to think that one is possibly more beautiful than the other. He even backs away from a scientific lecture about the universe only to gaze up at the stars. To me, the facts and …

…proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the 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.