When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Anderson Luu (Student FVHS)

1. Poem's tone (Mahmud)

mfbarhum101 — 2024-03-27 15:57:31 UTC

The tone of this poem is rather sad and tiring based on the author's emotion and the words he uses. For example, Whitman uses words like "sick" and "tired" showing how he once admired something in silence is now something that tires him and sickens him. The stars he loves to gaze at have been "ranged in columns" and now have "charts and diagrams, to add, divided, and measure them". They have taken the out nature from nature leaving him tired. The poem is ironic because he lived in a time when the stars were starting to become measured and taken data from, nowadays people are still doing that, but in a bigger manner. Stars are no more than a data table in the sky for the liking of astronomers.

4. Figures of Speech (Anderson)

akluu101 — 2024-03-27 16:01:34 UTC

In the poem, Imagery evokes a picture or a concrete sensation of nature that appeals to our senses as we read. His language and words help us visualize the imagery the writer describes. As described by Whitman, "In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars." (lines 7-8) He uses of words and tone of voice helps us visualize the scene of the poem.

6. Theme (Central Idea) (Anderson)

akluu101 — 2024-03-27 16:06:49 UTC

The central theme of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman revolves around the contrast between intellectual knowledge and personal experience, suggesting that sometimes, the direct experience of nature can be more profound and meaningful than academic or scientific explanations. As written in the poem, "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself." The poem explores the idea that true understanding and appreciation of the universe come from personal engagement and contemplation rather than from the study of facts and figures.

Walt Whitman

akluu101 — 2024-03-27 16:08:13 UTC

The Poem

akluu101 — 2024-03-27 16:10:37 UTC

When I Heard the Learn' Astronomer

Walt Whitman (1819 –1892)

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

8. Importance of Structure (Mahmud)

mfbarhum101 — 2024-03-27 16:14:07 UTC

The importance of rhythm and line arrangement in this poem is that it is very short. Although short, the poem tells us a tale worth 1000 pages. It tells us in a manner of a free verse, there is no rhyming, that he is expressing his yearning for the nature of the stars. Whitman was a self-taught man, and nature is a symbol of teaching of one's own. Having it stripped away is like a form of paralysis, which he did get paralyzed. He was a very passionate man, so his love for nature was strong, given his characteristics. The poem's form influences the poem's overall effect by making it easier to express himself in a way that suits his emotions. He set the poem up in rows much like how the astronomers set up the stars in columns.