Astronomy Buff

Shakespeare as a Skywatcher

by Tony on March 6th, 2008

I think I am going to go to this event called “Shakespeare as a Skywatcher: Joining Astronomy and English Literature” at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois on Mar. 25th. If you are in the area, I highly suggest that you should go too.

I love how they describe what the lecture is about:

Astronomy is not meant just for professional astronomers. It’s all about passion — the passion of finding perspectives in the night sky in readings throughout literature, music, and many other activities throughout daily life. This talk will concentrate on the relationship of the night sky through English literature, from Hamlet’s possible sighting of the supernova of 1572 to Thomas Hardy’s famous eclipse of the moon. By discovering astronomical images in literature, we open a new door to the enjoyment and understanding of the night sky.

So true! It’s all about passion. Passion. It is discovery and romance, awe and wonder. Shakespeare under the stars–c’mon, you can’t get much better than that! It ain’t dry science, it’s got soul!

Astronomy is not just for professionals; it’s for everyone. Everyone. Astronomy is pure artistic inspiration; we see astronomy everywhere, in poems, in music, in literature–not just in astronomy textbooks.

Anyway, since we’ve been on the topic of lunar eclipses, why not post the Thomas Hardy poem “At Lunar Eclipse”? It’s good stuff, fer sure.

At a Lunar Eclipse
By Thomas Hardy
6/2/1840-1/11/1928

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon’s meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.

How shall I link such sun-cast symmetry
With the torn troubled form I know as thine,
That profile, placid as a brow divine,
With continents of moil and misery?

And can immense Mortality but throw
So small a shade, and Heaven’s high human scheme
Be hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies?

Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show,
Nation at war with nation, brains that teem,
Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?

Photocredit: Simon Lieschke

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