When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer




By Walt Whitman






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

Laykorn

The poem looks like a lyric poem. From what I understand, the speaker was in an astronomy class and expected the astronomer to talk about the stars' beauty, but instead he talked about figures and charts, so the class got boring and he was dozing off so he probably begged to be excused and wandered outside to watch the stars. Then, he realised the mere words (of even an astronomer) cannot describe the stars' beauty.

The crux of what Whitman is saying is that the true way to understand nature is not scientific but intuitive and mystical. The poet can feel and understand the processes of nature when he is experiencing them, but listening to people lecture about them merely makes him "tired and sick."

Sincerely, I don't see any other thing here but some imagery.

Oahray, EverestDiBliu, Krystalxxx, OMA4U, rudepen, you should see more.

By the way, S6390380, what language do you speak?
Ayamlaykorn

Texanomaly

The poem is written in Whitman's "free verse style". He wrote without a specific pattern of rhyme or meter. Read just about any of his works and you will notice it.

Laykorn, your analysis of what Whitman is trying to say is correct. This poem is a prime example of Whitman's simplistic genius. His poems take us along on what seems like a perpetual walk. We see the world through his eyes, and experience it through his beautiful mind. He seemed to see the world in "shades of colors" others could not perceive. Walt Whitman saw the everything through the eyes of a poet and experienced it through the mind of dreamer, with a spiritual view of the world around him.

I found this interesting tidbit in an analysis of the poem:

[b]"The poem develops around the contrast between two different kinds of "stars" (and, no, not the Hollywood kind). The astronomer's "stars" are abstract ideas that can be reduced to numbers and charts. They reside in a noisy, crowded lecture-room. The real stars, on the other hand, reside in the infinite night sky. They give you that swooning, dizzy feeling in the pit of your stomach. When the speaker goes outside to look at them, he feels a spiritual unity with the night.


Line 6: The word "gliding" is a hyperbole. It exaggerates the smoothness and ease of the speaker's exit from the lecture-room. Unless this room happens to be located in an ice-skating rink. We doubt it.
Line 7: The phrase "mystical moist night-air" is an example of alliteration.
Line 8: The phrase "perfect silence" is a tautology, a kind of logical repetition. "Silence," the absence of sound, is by definition already "perfect." Whitman wants to underscore this point."[/b]

Ishilove:
Texanomaly

Please, I need your help.

Macelliot7:

Please, I need your help.

Ummm my help or Ishilove's help.

texanomaly:


Ummm my help or Ishilove's help.

This a clone of my real moniker (macelliot). I have been given an entire one month ban on NL by one invisible mod. Imagine?
That means every active user in the politics section deserves a year ban each because they had done worser than mine... I see no reason why I should be given a one month ban for defending my right, my Tribe from the political A.P.C and Buharians.
I suspect this Mod, Maclatunj, the Jihadist might be responsible for my ban...
This mods are very wicked.
How do you expect me to stay off nairaland for a whole month. I can't even miss NL in a day, let to say two days. Imagine, a whole one month??
After searching 4 the Mod who could bail me, I think Ishilove is the most compassionate, and kind-hearthed Mod who could bail me out from this terrible mess.
Pls, Help me Ishi?

laykorn:
The poem looks like a lyric poem. From what I understand, the speaker was in an astronomy class and expected the astronomer to talk about the stars' beauty, but instead he talked about figures and charts, so the class got boring and he was dozing off so he probably begged to be excused and wandered outside to watch the stars. Then, he realised the mere words (of even an astronomer) cannot describe the stars' beauty.

The crux of what Whitman is saying is that the true way to understand nature is not scientific but intuitive and mystical. The poet can feel and understand the processes of nature when he is experiencing them, but listening to people lecture about them merely makes him "tired and sick."

Sincerely, I don't see any other thing here but some imagery.

Oahray, EverestDiBliu, Krystalxxx, OMA4U, rudepen, you should see more.

By the way, S6390380, what language do you speak?
Ayamlaykorn

I am in a small country, so, it makes no sense to tell you. You never heard of the language I speak.

S6390380:

I am in a small country, so, it makes no sense to tell you. You never heard of the language I speak.

Telling me the language you speak gives me a chance to know about. +1 item in my pot of wisdom.