Textuality » 4A Interacting
When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer
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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 the 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. |
Walt Whitman
Just looking at the title I expect the poem will be about a person, probably a student, who are listening to a lesson of astronomy.
Considering the first word “when” I think the text will told about something that happens in that lesson. The student is not very involved in the lesson (heard isn’t a verb of action).
The poem is written in free verse and it is organized into ten lines. The first lines begin with the word “when” and they present the situation.
The repetition of the conjunction convey a sense of boredom and that is communicated by the punctuation (there is a semicolon at the end of each line). In addition in the first part of the poem there is a long list of scientific nouns and verbs about astronomy.
The poem is very static. There is no action verbs except sitting, that anyway, convey a sense of immobility.
The last lines are very different that the other. There, the situation change. The protagonist, the speaking voice, that is bored of the lecture, becomes sick and tired and he are waiting for the end of the lesson. At last, the lecture finish, the astronomer goes away, and the student can go out, in the “moist night-air”, where he looked ut at the sky and the star in silence.
Here you can find another way to observe the nature. In fact, in the world doesn’t exist only the scientific aspect of something, but sometimes, is better look at the things around us simply, without any other thinking except your emotion.
PENSARE: etimologia
Pensare, dal latino pensàre. Pensare e valutare le cose con l’intelletto; indi stimare, giudicare, volger l’attenzione e più genericamente meditare e formare idee.