star stuff

I received a comment on last week's star stuff post letting me know that the words in the artwork I posted were misquoted. They actually aren't from Galileo, but from a poem by Sarah Williams entitled "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil." It's a beautiful poem, so I thought I would share it today!

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles!

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Since the original image attributed the quote to Galileo (and I still can't track down where it came from! ergh!) I decided to just make my own flapper doodle version with credit given to the correct author. It's available in my etsy shop here :)

Also did anyone snag the Carl Sagan shirt on teefury yesterday!? I wanted one but completely forgot to order until the 24 hours were up, darn it!

star stuff

I've seen this on pinterest a couple times but it's one of those crazy link chains where one image links back to a tumblr, which links to another tumblr, which links to weheartit and nowhere can you find the original source. So if anyone knows who made this please let me know! I'd like to credit them & probably buy a print :)

Anyway, I think the quote is absolutely beautiful. I love nighttime -- I like the still quiet, the feeling of being awake when almost everyone else in your time zone is fast asleep and obviously being able to see the stars. Night is the only time that the naked eye can peek out into the universe, and I think that's lovely.

I will admit, despite the fact that I am a night owl, I do get scared of the dark sometimes. Although, strangely, I'm never scared of the dark when I'm outside, only when I'm inside. It's stupid because it's a lot more likely that a killer would be lurking in my backyard than under my bed, but I suppose fear isn't usually caused by rational thinking...

Update: The quote isn't actually by Galileo, but by poet Sarah Williams. You can read her poem and see my own artwork with the quote in this star stuff post :)