When+I+heard+the+Learn’d+Astronomer

 

= **Walt Whitman** =

**May 31, 1819 - March 26, 1982**

 * Born - Long Island**

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__** Analysis   **__

 * Theme -  **   A scientific analysis can never truly capture the immensity and beauty apparent in nature. True wisdom comes from experience, it transmits itself to the willing soul like osmosis. We should all aim to integrate ourselves with our natural surroundings to gain ultimate understanding and wisdom.
 * Imagery -  **   Differences between the two types of 'stars'. The astronomers stars are represented by the graphs, figures, charts, diagrams. These all work to create an image in your head. You see the charts and graphs, you feel like you are in the lecture room. The other types of stars are the real stars. They are described best by their surroundings, "the mystical moist night-air" and the "perfect silence". This places you in the scene and constructs a setting in which you see the magical stars in the night sky of which he is speaking.
 * Meter -  **   Free verse. While there is no specific patter of rhyme or meter, there is a unique flow apparent. Line 1 and 2 emphasis on the 3rd syllable. Line 3 moves to 4th syllable. Line 4 moves back to 2nd syllable. Continues with variations of this theme.
 * Emotion -  **  Dissatisfaction meets awe. His displeasure concerning the astronomy lecture is extreme. He is not only bored by feeling physically ill. Something about the astronomical version of star doesn't sit quite right with him. To escape the unpleasant feeling of dissatisfaction the narrator escapes to the outdoors. Here does he not only become satisfied, he is in awe. He seeing the stunning beauty that the reality of nature contains, that which could never be contained in numbers or graphs, and understands the wisdom which can only be found in it.

 