Starry Night: Astronomers and Poets Read the Sky

Over the centuries the starry night sky has inspired poets and scientists alike, and though the fruits of these inspirations take very different forms, they often enrich each other. Acclaimed science writer David Levy, the codiscoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, has written this wonderful jewel of a book to celebrate the complementary visions of human wonder and curiosity that are expressed in the separate disciplines of poetry and astronomy.
Levy, known for his infectious enthusiasm, traces the works of the greatest poets-Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Shelley, and others-to show how they were influenced not only by the beauty of the heavens but by their times, celestial events, and moreover by the discoveries of such great scientists as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton.
How strong is the connection between literature and science? Levy says, "To think that science and poetry are two disciplines that are properly divorced from each other is to lose sight of what each is about and what their common goal is. In their highest forms, both are avenues of inquiry into the human condition and its relationship to the Universe. Knowing what that Universe is and how it is structured is fundamental to each."
The book culminates with Levy's eloquent reflections on the spectacular crash into the planet Jupiter of the comet he discovered:
"It was the most conspicuous marking ever seen on another planet. By the end of impact week, Jupiter lay bombarded with these dark clouds, markings that remained visible for almost a year. Thou too, O Comet beautiful and fierce, Who drew the heart of this frail Universe Towards thine own; till, wrecked in that convulsion, Alternating attraction and repulsion, Thine went astray and that was rent in twain; Oh, float into our azure heaven again! - Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epipsychidion, 1821"

"This attractive little volume is the perfect gift for all starstruck poetry lovers."
--Publishers Weekly
"...a delight...a great book for a relaxed readùpacked from cover to cover with enjoymentàpick up your copy today!"
--The Observatory
Over the centuries the starry night sky has inspired poets and scientists alike, and though the fruits of these inspirations take very different forms, they often enrich each other. Acclaimed science writer David Levy, the codiscoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, has written this wonderful jewel of a book to celebrate the complementary visions of human wonder and curiosity that are expressed in the separate disciplines of poetry and astronomy.
Levy, known for his infectious enthusiasm, traces the works of the greatest poets-Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Shelley, and others-to show how they were influenced not only by the beauty of the heavens but by their times, celestial events, and moreover by the discoveries of such great scientists as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton.
How strong is the connection between literature and science? Levy says, "To think that science and poetry are two disciplines that are properly divorced from each other is to lose sight of what each is about and what their common goal is. In their highest forms, both are avenues of inquiry into the human condition and its relationship to the Universe. Knowing what that Universe is and how it is structured is fundamental to each."
The book culminates with Levy's eloquent reflections on the spectacular crash into the planet Jupiter of the comet he discovered:
"It was the most conspicuous marking ever seen on another planet. By the end of impact week, Jupiter lay bombarded with these dark clouds, markings that remained visible for almost a year. Thou too, O Comet beautiful and fierce, Who drew the heart of this frail Universe Towards thine own; till, wrecked in that convulsion, Alternating attraction and repulsion, Thine went astray and that was rent in twain; Oh, float into our azure heaven again! - Percy Bysshe Shelley, Epipsychidion, 1821"

David H. Levy (Vail, AZ) is one of the world's most celebrated amateur astronomers. He is the science editor of Parade magazine and the author of many critically acclaimed popular science books, including Comets: Creators and Destroyers, The Quest for Comets, and Impact Jupiter.

Publishers Weekly

Astronomer Levy (author of last year's Shoemaker by Levy) is best known as the co-discoverer of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which slammed into Jupiter in 1994. This diminutive book brings together poems that mention the night sky, photographs of astronomical objects and Levy's musings on how comets, astronomical conjunctions and contemporary scientific paradigm shifts influenced poets through the ages. Levy dates the writing of poems like Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" and Gerard Manley Hopkins's "I am like a slip of comet" to demonstrate convincingly how astronomical references are made to specific comets which, until recent centuries, were regarded as heavenly portents as they burst across the relatively unchanging night sky that these poets must have seen. This is a very personal volume, reflecting Levy's favorite authors; yet it must be said that Levy's interest in poetry hasn't progressed much beyond his youthful, rather conservative, enthusiasms Milton, Tennyson (though the chapter on In Memoriam is particularly fine), Thoreau and Frost. Walt Whitman's Shakespearean and very pertinent "Year of meteors! brooding year!" is conspicuously absent. The space Levy devotes in the last chapter to Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would have been better allocated to some 20th-century poets who explored unknown regions of poetic discourse in their musings on the heavens: Hart Crane, for example, in the "Cape Hatteras" section of The Bridge, or W.H. Auden's seminal "Out on the lawn I lie in bed/ Vega conspicuous overhead." Taken on its merits, this engaging little album can be recommended for an enjoyable few hours of bedtime reading, with perhaps a stroll out under the stars afterward to marvel at the grandeur of the heavens. Illus. (Mar.) Forecast: This attractive little volume is the perfect gift for all starstruck poetry lovers. It should sell nicely now and in the future. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

David H. Levy (Vail, AZ) is one of the world's most celebrated amateur astronomers. He is the science editor of Parade magazine and the author of many critically acclaimed popular science books, including Comets: Creators and Destroyers, The Quest for Comets, and Impact Jupiter.