Walt Whitman's 'When I Heard The Learn' D Astronomer

Walt Whitman, and mark twain both lived similar lives. they both started out becoming apprentice printers at the age of 12 and both made their career in writing, however where they differed really sets them apart, not only were they both on different sides during the civil war, only one of them could make a stable living during his time writing. Not saying that Whitman’s work was bad, it just wasn’t appreciated as the amazing writing it was, and even though they have many similarities there were many differences as well that set them apart. The basic premise of the poem is that a person is at a lecture, listening to an astronomer who talks about nature analytically. He becomes sick of hearing the astronomer and goes outside where he discovers that there is so mush more to nature than number on graphs.

This gives us a powerful visual image, and builds drama and tension. The ballad relies on the scary intensity of the night time and a dark old inn-yard scene to keep the reader riveted. The scene is portrayed with a spooky vibe, as the word moonlight is conveyed regularly and onomatopoeia is used to create aural imagery. In stanza 1 the poet uses many literary techniques, such as alliteration, metaphors,

Whitman was able to change people’s views on life and was able to give people something that they wanted and were looking for in his creation of a new writing style. His writing about real life experiences connected him well with the common man, which is another aspect of the Romantic period. Whitman is also thought of as the “father of free verse.” He enjoyed using free verse because it could further distinguish him from other writers of the past, and of his time.

The poems “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and “He ate and drank the precious words” by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson exemplify the struggle between book learning and learning through experience. Whitman describes his experience at an astronomy convention where a learned astronomer teaches him using “proofs, figures, ranged in columns before [him];...the charts and the diagrams;” (lines 2-3) however, the evidence bored him and Whitman felt he would be just as well off in “the mystical moist night-air, [looking] up in perfect silence at the stars” than learning the math and science of the stars (lines 8-9). This kind of care free attitude is romantic but not practical for an advanced civilization that relies on science and engineering for its new discoveries. If NASA applied Whitman’s transcendental attitude to their research,

In Walt Whitman’s poem “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” the title itself brings to mind images of stars and charts. The word “heard” suggests the Poet is listening, and the word “Learn’d” adds to the feeling of intelligence. A reader would expect a poem entitled “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” to be about the stars and the shy, and in this case the reader’s expectations would be disappointed. This poem tells the story of a man sitting in a lecture hall listening to another man that says he is an astronomer.

Emerson truly encourages the development of a good connection between men and the stars as “The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things”(Nature 1). This goes along with Whitman’s poem, because he explains how when he became tired and sick of the astronomer’s lecture, he “wander’d off by [himself]...Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars”(When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer), the same way Emerson advises that “if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars”(Nature 1). Whitman’s poem involves philosophical ideas that are introduced by Emerson in Nature, which was written long before the publishing of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”, also reinforcing the idea that the influence Emerson had on Whitman was a key part of his contribution to American Literature and

Otherwise, what I relate to most with this poem is his response on the education system bashing the heads of brilliant minds and stealing their creativity right out from under them. I’m a Film arts student and every class I have taken out of my major seems to be nothing but assignments and corrections. The school systems have become just read and recite. We are given textbooks to read and tests on our textbooks. Teaching has become more on standards and less on students actually learning and comprehending at a level they will be able to use and benefit from the

The Jarawa tribe is indigenous to India’s Andaman Islands, with a small population that has declined greatly since their beginning; approximately 55,000 years ago. This group of around four hundred people has been struggling to remain clear of the outside attention and influence that has been harming its members. Despite orders from the Indian government meant to preserve and protect the Jarawa, they are still being exploited and treated extremely poorly. The best way to change this would be to integrate the Jarawa tribe, to prevent another extinction.

tells a tale of a student that grows uninterested in what is being taught to him/her. Thus, the student decides to leave and self-educate him/herself. Whitman writes this poem to demonstrate how experiences and learning within one’s mind can help an individual flock intellectually rather than being taught by someone based on their thoughts. Obviously, Whitman took part in the transcendentalism movement; which members believed that one must learn through instinct and through their own ideas. The student in the poem leaves the astronomer in hopes of finding answers for themselves through their own interpretation of whatever they are interested in. This is evident when the student observes the stars for him/herself. The student no longer limit

Whitman utilizes music to accentuate the interconnectedness of the human experience. Even though every laborer sings his or her individual melody, they are all doing the same thing. They are all working, as ordinary people do. He goes through several specialists, but they are all joined together as regular

As the speaker sits in an auditorium, they observe the lecturer’s many notes, “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,” (lines 2-3). This line provides strong visual imagery of complex investigations in astronomy, and a reader can easily imagine a full lecture room with endless notes and charts which aids in providing the mind-numbing mood of the experience. Moreover, the repetitions of what are essentially synonyms in this context make these lines sound like the rambles of the astronomer, contributing to the tone. As the speaker tires of the lecture, he leaves the room and “In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars” (lines 8-9). Here Whitman again employs imagery to make the night seem appealing and

It was a deep poem, because it opened up his perspective on life, and his perspective is unique. In a way he spoke of his own religion, and preached that everyone meets their maker, but everyone is reincarnated as a blade of grass, and he spoke of showing respect for the blades of grass because they could have been part of his ancestory or a person of importance to another person. In general, he wanted people to show appreciation for the world because many generations walked this planet before he did. He wanted people to respect those who have since been deceased, no matter their race, because death is inevitable, and they will soon face it. Whitman’s writing style carried over into this canto, his blank verse style of poetry, although it was not flashy, it made him sound educated and well spoken, but hard to follow. He also revealed that he did believe in a god when he spoke of God’s handkerchief was a gift for Earth, through a

“The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through experience, seeing something with our own eyes.” According to Walt Whitman’s poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” he portrays the theme that it is better to learn by experiencing things on your own. Whitman illustrates “When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room. How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick” (lines 4-5). The author implies how he is not understanding the material taught in class. He is lost how everyone else is getting the subject but him. Students or anyone trying to learn something new does not always work when they are in class. Just because everyone else might get it does

Along with the use of metaphors, the form of the poem plays an important role in uncovering the views of Whitman. First and foremost, this poem was written in free verse which is a form of poetry that lacks structure. The free verse stucture of the poem is shown in the lack of form in the stanzas of the poem. Some stanzas are six lines long while others are only one, and the lines can be either concise or drawn out. The poem also lacks any apparent rhyming scheme or rhythm. Unlike Shakespearean poetry, where the foot of the poem stays the same, the lack of any apparent structure to the poem leaves the reader unable to predict what is coming next. In addition to this, at the time this poem was written, free verse was not common. In fact, Whitman may have been one of the first poets to use this form, showing that he may have been rebelling against the predominant structured form in poetry. The lack of any apparent structure guides the reader towards the conclusion that Whitman did not like structure in poetry, and can even be

Payande (2009) compares Whitman's “When I Heared the Learn'd Astronomer” with Sepehri's “Sorah of Watching”. The poets believe that reason is unable to find out the essence of being. Payande pays attention to the similarities rather than the influences, and believes trying to trace influences is useless. The ideas of Sepehri and Whitman are so similar that Stovall's comment on the American poet quoted in the article best fits Sepehri.