BY WALT WHITMAN (1819 – 1892)

WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN’D ASTRONOMER

BACKGROUND - THE POET• Born 1819 in Long Island, NY

• Influenced by his mother; father was a carpenter

• The society he grew up in was concerned with surroundings

• He considered life in a broader context and was open-minded.

• School teacher in his late teens in Cold Harbor – a peaceful place which made a good impression on him.

• Founded “The Long Islander” – a journal/magazine

• In NY, learned the trade of printing and wrote for magazines and newspapers

• His poetry celebrates life and nature, landscapes, injustice, optimistic democracy

• Loved the theatre and opera

• Travelled to New Orleans for 3 months to establish a newspaper. Had to leave because of his voiced opposition to slavery.

…• Supported Abe Lincoln.

• Brother joined the Union army and became wounded.

• Whitman searched for his brother in the Washington, D.C., hospital base and ended up becoming a medic/orderly/nurse to help the infirm.

• At age 36, he wrote and self-published Leaves of Grass, his most celebrated book – a collection of poetry. He continued to update and add to this book, publishing it a total of 6 times in his lifetime, as well as having a “deathbed edition” for an actual total of 7.

HIS POETRY• Whitman argued poetry must embrace every aspect of life.

• Celebrated and criticized post war age.

• Valuable expression of American nationalism.

• Deplorable materialism that corrupts democratic values.

• Language of his poetry was vivid and confusing with its rapid shifts from abstractions to personal revelations.

• Voice of poetry was democratic---individuals speak out freely and directly to the audience.

“New” poetry• Discarded traditional form and structure (favoured free verse)

• Emphasizes all of the senses, especially touch

STRUCTURE AND NARRATOR

• 8 LINES

• Broken rhyme scheme = emphasises the unstructured and inexplicable vastness of nature and being. Some things cannot be explained.

• First-person narrator = “I”

SETTING AND TITLE• Lecture room among a crowd, probably a community hall.

• Public lectures were a popular form of entertainment in the 19th century.

TITLE = “When I heard the learn’d astronomer”

• Tells the reader that the content is about a lecture given by an intelligent astronomer.

• However, the word “learn’d” implies that the speaker is not impressed by what the astronomer had to say.

SYMBOLS

• Knowledge and intelligence = astronomer, proofs, figures, columns, charts, diagrams, add, divide, measure, lectured, lecture room

SUMMARY

• The speaker remembers sitting at a lecture. He watched and listened how the lecturer, a famous and renowned astronomer, went on and on about the stars. Except he referred to equations and numbers which have nothing to do with the stars.

• Suddenly, the speaker became ill and exited the room. He walked alone outside in the fresh dewy night-air. He wandered away from the lecture hall. Ever so often, he looked up at the sky and there they were: the stars.

LINE 1 - 2

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

1 syllable instead of 2 – deliberate folksy speechSarcasm: makes fun of astronomer

Astronomy: study of stars and other heavenly bodies.Studies stars, intelligent, well-educatedmathematical

theories

Does not mention what is being proved, does not matter according to the poem– the speaker is overwhelmed by all the details

REPETITION: chanting quality, emphasises confusion, monotonous tone

LINE 3 - 4

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,

Speaker thoroughly confused as he was asked to perform these actions (mathematical equations) on numerical qualities

Mathematical theories / evidence

Numerical qualities

Summarises atmosphere. Crowd was mesmerized.

LINE 5 - 6

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d by myself,

for no apparent reason

HYPERBOLE = Exaggeration, frustration has led to physical illness

Plays on speaker’s inability or confusion at/with mathematics

gracefully exits

does not like to waste time

Emphasises the speaker’s uncomplicated outlook on life

LINE 7 - 8

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.Speaker does not try to explain their existence or beauty, rather enjoys them.

Means unified with God or nature. CONTRAST = with educational atmosphere of the hall

humid, warm

CONTRAST = astronomer’s explanations. We can never fully understand the stars, knowledge of them must be incomplete or “imperfect”. Description of “perfect silence” captures their beauty.

not forced

MESSAGE

• One should not explain the incomprehensible. Some things are not meant to be defined or understood, therefore there are more powerful things than knowledge. That is, you only need to have your spiritual sense open to the world.