Year of Meteors is one of several “literary paintings” Robert Indiana created during the early 1960s. The painting’s central geometric motif, a compass rose with eight points and two concentric circles, provides the architecture for passages from Walt Whitman’s poem “Year of Meteors,” published in Leaves of Grass. In his poem, Whitman reflects on events of 1859 and 1860, including the passage of the ship the Great Eastern (an engineering marvel) through New York Harbor, the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, and a rare meteor procession. 

Label from Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective, June 16–September 23, 2018