Posted by Michael Addy (66.205.140.92) on July 5, 2005 at 6:31:22 p.m.:
The Simple Call of Nature in Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"
P1 The title of "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer," is actually half of the meaning of the poem itself. The title containing the word "Learn'd" as a description for the astronomer shows Whitman's distaste for regimented science that betrays the simplicity of nature. "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is about the human tendency to learn and study things and in the process miss the entire reason that we were studying them in the first place. The author of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," refuses to accept the idea of turning beautiful things in to simple formulas and removing its beauty although he is not against science in and of itself. The poem by Walt Whitman is about the simplicity of the beauty of nature and the main character's response to it.
P2 The first four lines of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" are dealing with the astronomer's perspective about his field of study. It is written in such a way that astronomy seems cold and lifeless in the hands of simple formulas, statistics, and diagrams. In a sense, the first half of the poem is describing astronomy in the eyes of 'one who knows' and to the reader creates a sense of boredom and distaste for astronomy when described in this sense. "When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,/ When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room" (Whitman 904) The reader understands from this passage the study of astronomy through the "Learn'd Astronomer's" eyes and instantly is bored and left with distaste for his work. The astronomer has given up the lure and call of the beauty of astronomy and traded it for diagrams that lead to people's admiration. "When" is used in every one of the first four lines of "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" to show the context of his scientific teachings in that "when" is a word that is used to express time and leaves little to the imagination. The lecture that is attended by the main character is teaching a regimented science that can be contained in a box in a sense, and thusly loses all of its interest and draw. However, due to the culture of study and science many people are left "applauding" at this aspect of science even though it seems obvious at first glance to be quite boring and lifeless.
P3 In the second half of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," however, we can see the change take place between the astronomer's lifeless approach to astronomy and his own. "In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,/ Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." (Whitman 904) The reader can clearly see the change from a scientific and regimented setting to an extremely fanciful one that provokes thoughts in the reader of a world that is magical and beautiful. We can see that the character never was interested in astronomy for the sake of charts and diagrams. He, like nearly everyone, is interested in astronomy because of the beauty of it in its simplest form of looking at the stars. As we see here in the second half of the poem, the wording and descriptive usage comes nearly full circle to the opposite of the cold and lifeless descriptions used in the first half during the astronomer's lecture. The wording becomes much more vibrant and descriptive in the second half of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," and paints a picture of an almost magical reality that this man is living in when looking at the stars. He is in "perfect silence" when he looks up at the stars in the night sky and the thoughts of what he has learned in all the formulas and charts never even enter his mind a single time as he is too enraptured in the beauty of nature. This phrase "perfect silence" is also demonstrated because as it is at the absolute end of the poem, the poem ends in perfect silence with no more ideas given to the reader.
P4 Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" shows the reader a definitive discrepancy between the mindsets of the main character and the astronomer. When astronomy was taken to its simplest form by the main character it became a beautiful and wonderful thing even though we started with a distaste for the subject from the very beginning due to the description of his study of astronomy from this "learn'd" and well respected astronomy professor. The astronomer who like the main character probably wanted to learn about astronomy because of his love for the beauty of astronomy and the stars had lost sight of why he had studied astronomy in the first place. The astronomer had traded a life of beauty and magic for a life of nubers and statistics which in essence, had taken the mystery of nature away for him. In fact, the astronomer's studies had even removed any of the vibrance and beauty astronomy had for him when he began his studies.
P5 "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is about the tendency to miss the beauty of what should be a wonderful thing. The astronomer who is lecturing seems to know almost everything about stars and astronomy, but as seen in Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" really knows nothing at all of beauty or wonder. Thus, in the title "Learn'd" is used to show his distaste for this man and his "science" that attempts to undermine the fantastic awe and lure of the stars at night. Whitman is making a call to the reader that seems like it should be obvious but often is not, which is to remember the simple call of nature and to simply appreciate it for what it is as a wonderfully fantastic world that we live in.
Word Count: 1016