“ When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” is a poem in which Walt Whitman, the author, talks about an astronomer’s lecture and how the narrator had gotten lost in the said astronomer’s lecture. The narrator explains things that he/she envisioned during the lecture and how he/she reacted mentally to the things said by the astronomer in his lecture. Like a lot of his other writings, Whitman wrote this poem in free verse. This poem consists of one stanza with eight lines. The first four lines of this poem all begin with “When” as if the narrator is remembering sitting and listening to the astronomer’s lecture but is not actually listening to it while writing down what he feels in the present moment. These lines act as an “input” to the poem and the last four lines act as the “output” from the first four lines. This paper will explain the tone, imagery, symbolism in each of the lines of this poem.
Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist who wrote during the realism era. Whitman was born in Long Island, New York on May 31, 1819. Whitman worked as a journalist, government …show more content…
In this line the narrator uses a good example of imagery. The narrator allows the reader the ability to imagine the narrator walking through the night. The scene depicted is like a majestical night. The night is filled with a slight drizzle, almost on the cusp of raining. The final line, which is the eighth line, reads “Look 'd up in perfect silence at the stars.” (1351). This final line is basically a continuation of line seven. This line has a good example of symbolism. This line symbolizes that the narrator may have actually taken some of the things that the astronomer said in the lecture and finally put them into fruition. It is almost like the narrator was secretly enjoying what the astronomer talked about in his lecture, but the narrator did not want to show that he enjoyed what was being taught or
Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist who wrote during the realism era. Whitman was born in Long Island, New York on May 31, 1819. Whitman worked as a journalist, government …show more content…
In this line the narrator uses a good example of imagery. The narrator allows the reader the ability to imagine the narrator walking through the night. The scene depicted is like a majestical night. The night is filled with a slight drizzle, almost on the cusp of raining. The final line, which is the eighth line, reads “Look 'd up in perfect silence at the stars.” (1351). This final line is basically a continuation of line seven. This line has a good example of symbolism. This line symbolizes that the narrator may have actually taken some of the things that the astronomer said in the lecture and finally put them into fruition. It is almost like the narrator was secretly enjoying what the astronomer talked about in his lecture, but the narrator did not want to show that he enjoyed what was being taught or