When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer 

Walt Whitman

First of all I have to consider the title to make predictions about the possible content of the text. Reading it I expect the poem to be about a university lesson made by a very intelligent, learned, astronomer. An astronomer is who likes studying stars and planets. Considering the verb heard I may understand that the student who was in the lecture room was not involved in the explanation, because heard is not an active verb, while the pronoun I adds lyrical dimension to the text.

Considering the layout I can notice that the poem is written in free verse and it is organized into ten lines; the shape of the verse reminds the idea of a diagram.

However the text can be divided into two parts: in the first one the poet feels bored during the lesson of the astronomer while in the second one the situation changes. The speaking voice becomes sick and tired, he are waiting for the end of the lesson. At last, the lecture finishes and he can go out, in the “moist night-air”, where he looked out at the sky and the star in silence.

The poem is static, because there are no action verbs, except sitting, that, anyway, conveys a sense of immobility.

Considering the semantic level I can create the damain field of scientific knowledge that includes the words: astronomer, proofs, figures, columns, charts, diagrams, to add, to divide, to measure, stars.

On the phonological level I can notice that there are many long vowel sounds: wander’d, astronomer, which create the sense of vastness of the space and the repetition of the sound –s: proofs, figures, columns, diagrams; these words create the effect of the silence.

Moreover there are no rhymes; maybe because the text should remind a university lesson and a lesson is not made thanks to rhyme.

Considering the syntactically level an intelligent reader notes that there are many commas; therefore he should stop to reflect while when there is a run on line, in the sixth line, he have to run on the next line to make sense of what he reads.

On the rhetorical level I can notice that there are the anaphoric syntax of the word when; it implies that the speaking voice feel very bored during the lesson.

So, the message of the poem is that there are many ways to perceive the things, because the astronomer looks the astronomy only studying in books while the speaking voice looks it looking the reality. This message is also underlined in the text thanks to the contrast between the pronouns he and I.