When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

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; 5

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

“When I Heard the Learned Astronomer” is a poem written by Walt Whitman.

The title of the poem gives to the intelligent reader several information. The poem is a memory of a passed occurrence. This is suggested by the first word of the title: “when”. The narrator is not living that occurrence while reporting it so this is an emotion recalled in tranquility. This is important because the speaker is not feeling what he's going to recount. The verb “I heard” gives information about the setting of the events narrated in the poem: they took place in the past. The verb moreover let the reader understand that the poem is narrated in the first person.
The second part of the title is dedicated to the character the narrator heard about. The character is an astronomer, so the poem is about astronomy. The attribute “learned” characterize the astronomer as an important and experienced astronomer. He's not like the other ones, he's one of the best astronomers.
The narrator uses the verb “to hear” instead of “to listen to” because the one who is hearing the astronomer is not paying attention to what he is saying. He's withstanding his words and not actively partaking in the lesson. The character is hearing to the speaker and taking part of the lesson against his will.

The poem is one stanza long, without refrains. The repetition of the title at the first line increase the expectation of the reader. The phrase is incomplete so the reader wants to know more, he wants to know what happened after the narrator heard the astronomer; but the reader has to wait for long, because the first five lines are dedicated on the description of passive actions the narrator did. He was shown a lot of scientific tools and instruments. The anaphora of “when” keeps high the expectation of the reader who is waiting since the title to know what happened to the narrator. At line six there is the first active verb: the speaker is sitting in the lecture-room. At this point the poem starts dealing with the narrator, leaving the lectured astronomer. The astronomer is appreciated by the whole people but the narrator didn't like him. In fact, during the applause, he feels sick and tired and runs away from the lecture-room. Now he's outside and it's dark. This fact gives information about the setting: it was night. Now he can walk around and finally look at the stars.

The astronomer took an entire lesson about the stars but never showed them. The narrator was suffering and withstanding the astronomer's words: he wasn't listening to them, he was just hearing them. This is why he became sick and tired. He was shown everything but the stars: only numbers organized in columns, charts and diagrams. The anaphora of “when” conveys the monotony of the lesson, while the contrast between “much applause” and “perfect silence” conveys the different sensations the narrator felt going from the noisy room to the “mystical moist air”. The alliteration of “m” in these words suggest the sensation and the mood of peace and mystical calm the speaker felt going outside and looking at the stars.

The final alliteration of “s” in “silence... stars” conveys the deep feeling of peace and freedom the narrator finally felt.

The whole poem is based of the anaphora that keeps high the expectation and conveys the sense of boredom and heaviness of the lesson.

The poetic imagine of a man who runs away from an important lesson just to look at the stars communicates the idea of the impossibility of science to deep appreciate the beauty of the stars. A scientist, using charts and diagrams, numbers and tools, can analyze the characteristics of a star but never describe (using mere numbers) his eternal beauty. The narrator must run away from society and from the mass in order to do this. This is the message of the text.