Thought for the Day: Bécquer and the Telescope

On this cold night on Mount Charleston, in the early morning, as I adjusted the focus of my telescope toward the cluster M57, a curious thought struck me: what would Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer have written if he had had access to a modern telescope? How would he have transformed his romantic melancholy when contemplating globular clusters like M57 or the distant Magellanic Clouds?

Bécquer's poetry always seemed to look inward, toward the depths of the soul. But what if he had looked outward, toward the depths of the universe?

Perhaps poetry isn't so far removed from astronomy. Both seek the invisible, the eternal, that which connects us to something greater than ourselves.

And you? Which poet would you take with you to explore the cosmos?