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;                         

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.

 “When I heard the learn’d astronomer” is the title of the poem under analysis and it suggests from the beginning that the text deals with an Astronomy lesson and that it involves the narrator himself/herself (the reader doesn’t know if the narrator is a “he” or a “she”). Moreover the word “when” creates an atmosphere of waiting: it incites the reader to go on reading to know what happens next.

Considering the layout, the reader understands the text is a poem organized in one section written in free verse. This suggests the reader that the poem might be organized according to plot development.

The poem opens with the description of the lesson: the narrator uses again the word “when” in the first part, from line 1 to 4. This extends the atmosphere of waiting and creates a climax, which increases the reader’s attention and curiosity.

The description of the lesson consists of a list of actions separated by commas from one another: this creates a sense of gradual accumulation and suggests the lesson is heavy going, monotonous and tedious. This hypothesis is confirmed by the use of passive verbs: they recall the passivity of the narrator, who becomes just a bored person in the lecture room, despite the presence of the first person “I” in each line. Moreover  the narrator uses the verb “to hear”, which is a perception verb, instead of “to listen”, in order underline that he/she didn’t pay attention to the lesson.

The climax reaches its peak at line 5, where the narrator admits his/her feelings and finally reveals what happens: he/she leaves the lecture room out of boredom. The second part of the poem focuses on the narrator’s actions, limited so far to sitting and hearing the lesson with no interest. The narrator goes out for a walk and his/her attention is drawn by the sky, even though it was the topic of the lesson the narrator didn’t pay attention to. The stars under another perspective are more fascinating and the narrator is totally taken with watching them, which underlines again that the lesson wasn’t interesting.

The narrator is alone again, but there is a contrast between his loneliness in the lecture room (he/she’s among people) and out the room (he/she wanders off by himself/herself). Moreover the mystical atmosphere of the night and the silence counter with the noise of the lecture room (due to people clapping) and the monotony of the lesson.

In conclusion, the narrator wants to communicate the reader two messages: first, the narrator wants to reevaluate the connection between people and nature. This poem explains how nowadays people tend to explain (or just talk about) something, in this case the sky and the stars, without really focusing on the thing itself: in fact, the teacher explains Astronomy using “proofs”, “figures”, “charts” and “diagrams”, but he doesn’t look at the sky, which is the subject of the lesson.

Finally, the second message the narrator gives to the reader is that people find listening harder than watching, because they’re not used to do it.