ANALYSIS - WWhen I heard the learn’d astronomer

Considering the title, the intelligent reader expects the poem to be about a story which begins when the speaker hears the astronomer. The reader is also curious to find out who is the astronomer and what happens after the meeting.

The poem is arranged into 8 free verses, whose verses the first half starts with "When", which underlines the repetition and the same value of the lines, and make the reader eager to know what happens in the rest of the text. The repetition of "When" is an anaphora, as a consequence the lines will be learnt quickly. Moreover, these four starting lines are one longer than the previous ones.

Reading the text, the reader imagines the poem to be about a pupil learning from an astronomer, then, after having worked and learned long time, the student becomes sick and tired, and he feels better during night looking at the sky. While reading, we can understand that the writer conveys us the tiredness of the student with the hectic rhythm of the poem, indeed in the first part it is fast and the pupil is sick, while in the second it is slower and the speaker is relaxing.

There are some archaic tenses in the text (learn’d, wander’d, Look’d) that make us pinpoint when the poem has been written. Another figure of speech in the text, besides the anaphora, is the alliteration (mystical moist).

Its curious the contraposition of the speaker tiredness after he has studied astronomy and the way he relaxes, that is looking at the stars in the night sky. This choice is actually particular, he feels better with what has made him tired and sick. The intelligent reader can interpret this as a wish of everyone to return to do what made him tired, but, at the same time what he enjoys; mostly if the teacher is someone learn’d, as we can understand from the much applause he receives.