When I heard

the learnd
astronomer
By Walt
Whitman
By:
Aaron Tann, Alberto Carvajal Jr., Leeanne Joyce Mandac
When I Heard The Learnd Astronomer Text
When I heard the learnd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and 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 wanderd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time,
Lookd up in the perfect silence at the stars.
Title
The poem is about an astronomer who made a discovery but did not
have people believe him until the narrator does.
paraphrase
The narrator talks about hearing an astronomers lecture. He is
expecting to learn about the stars. Instead, the astronomer explains all
of the data hes collected, but his audience still praises his discoveries
with a round of applause. The narrator gets tired of all of this data and
decides to leave to explore on his own. There, he discovers a night sky
filled with stars.
connotation
Anaphora- Lines 1-4, repeated use of the word when at the beginning
of the first four lines

Contractions- learnd wanderd and lookd

Hyperbole- the word gliding exaggerates the smoothness of the

speakers exit from the lecture-room

Repetition- the word lecture

attitude/tone
Overwhelming and irritating with all of the astronomers data, charts,
proofs, figures, calculations

Disappointment, when the astronomer doesnt share any knowledge

on the stars

In awe, while looking at the stars at night

shifts
Written in free verse.

The author shifts from using the word when to just no repetition. In
addition, the speaker uses when to cause a sense of confusion.

The author shows the phrase tired and sick to show that he was not
interested and the speaker shows boredom. After this, towards the end
of the speaker shows a mood of peace as they looked up in the perfect
silence at the stars.
Title: interpreted analysis
The title of the poem When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer is
repeated in the first line of the poem for the emphasis that he heard the
astronomer. The word Learnd means smart or well educated. Since
the definition of this word the author is speaking about a time where he
went to see an astronomer that was really smart and really educated.
Theme
The poem is about the speaker listening to an astronomer lecturer
talking about equations and numbers instead of talking about stars. The
speaker is disappointed and decided to leave the lecture room and walk
outside. The speaker then looks up at the sky and see the stars. No
words of explanation could possibly capture them. Walt Whitman is
wanting to seek to expand the appreciation of both scientific
phenomena and the natural world.