Textual Analysis

The poem When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer bears the some title of its first line so that the reader understands that it is part of a collection.

The poem is in free verse and some lines are longer.

Therefore it will be interesting to find out a possible reason for that. In addition the last four lines show a regular pattern in length.

The poem is the record of a memory: the speaking voice expresses his emotion and  reaction while listening to a university lecture about astronomy. At that that time there was an expert "the learn'd astronomer" discussing about the universe and he resorted to difficult figures, geometrical charts and the like. The speaking voice listened but he was not involved very differently from the audience who express appreciation with "much applause". The poet does not seem able to explain why, without any apparent reason, he mechanically stood up and left the lecture room, tired and sick. When outside the night seemed almost
mystical to him, he could look at the stars in the sky in perfect silence.

A connotative analysis of the poem show the poet's preference for an anaphoric structure which privileges the first section
of the poem where all lines start with the interrogative pronoun "when" and significantly grow longer to convey the sense of gradual boredom of the speaking voice who's head is full with "proofs, figures, columns, charts, and diagrams". Also he is asked to continuously make calculation "to add, dived, measure", in a typical scientific approach to the study of the universe. All the poet's word choice in the first part relies on long vowel sounds to create an atmosphere of distance, the distance the speaker feels from the lecture.

Indeed he "heard" and "was shown", all the lecture data; the use of perception verbs and the passive voice together with the considerable frequently of infinite verse add to somebody who just set and heard. He did not act, neither did he interact with the lecture but he felt totally different "I sitting heard", "he lectured" estranged from that. Line length underline such bored attitude and paves the way for the next section when the speaking voice felt free leaving the lectured room and outside by myself that is alone, he takes distances from that room in opposition to the applause he enjoys the "perfect silence of the stars and the mystical moist of the night". In both cases the alliteration of m and s adds to what he considers the suitable way to study the universe  with his star his a very different approach from the learned astronomer.