WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN’D ASTRONOMER
By Walt Whitman
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; Shift to outside the classroom
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. He learns you learn better outside school
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; Shift to outside the classroom
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. He learns you learn better outside school
An analysis
This poem is about a student struggling to learn the material that is being taught to him. He is bored by proofs, diagrams, and math. He dislikes Figures, charts, and measuring. But when the class ends, he learns about the world. He is excited by it. Learns more than he ever did in school and is finally happy about learning new things.
The theme of this poem is that you learn more outside the classroom than inside.
This can be connected to Anthem and what Equality learns in his tunnel. Society learns at their school, but Equality learns more than the entire city as soon as he starts experimenting on his own.
The theme of this poem is that you learn more outside the classroom than inside.
This can be connected to Anthem and what Equality learns in his tunnel. Society learns at their school, but Equality learns more than the entire city as soon as he starts experimenting on his own.