15 pages • 30 minutes read
Walt WhitmanWhen I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1865A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Means of Measurement
The speaker carefully lists the many materials the astronomer uses throughout the course of his lecture: “the proofs, the figures” that are arranged “in columns” (Line 2), and the “charts and diagrams” (Line 3) that display the astronomer’s calculations, allowing him “to add, divide, and measure [the stars]” (Line 3). The astronomer’s materials and the scientific data they contain are all symbols of academic knowledge and of the astronomer’s rational, evidence-based approach to nature. The fact that the astronomer’s materials are all used in deciphering the sky’s mysteries and bringing order to the natural world symbolizes that science is a regulatory sort of force: it can quantify, measure, and make tidier even the immensities of the sky. By contrast, the speaker describes his “tired and sick” emotional reaction to the lecture as “unaccountable” (Line 5) – a highly significant choice of word, as it contains a double meaning. On one hand, the speaker’s reaction is “unaccountable” because it does not make sense – he does not know why he should feel this way after hearing an astronomy lecture. On the other hand, it is “unaccountable” in the sense that it cannot be logically measured or quantified – it is something that eludes the precise kind of data the astronomer favors. The poem’s means of measurement (and anti-measurement) are therefore symbols of both science’s power and also its ongoing limitations.
The Stars
The stars in the poem are the subject of the astronomer’s scientific inquiries— they are also a motif in the poem that helps to illustrate the thematic contrast between knowledge and wonder. For both the astronomer and the poem’s speaker, the stars are the same stars: it is only the approach of each man that differs. The stars for the astronomer represent a mystery that he wishes to unravel, something that he wants to “add, divide, and measure” (Line 3) in order to fully understand as a scientist. For the speaker, the stars represent the enduring beauties and mysteries of nature and also become a focal point for re-centering himself emotionally after growing “tired and sick” (Line 5) in the lecture hall. At the poem’s end, the speaker’s silent admiration of the night sky seems to suggest that the essence of nature’s beauty and complexity remains just beyond man’s reach.
The Lecture Hall
The poem’s opening setting of the lecture hall serves three symbolic purposes. It is a symbol of scientific inquiry, allowing the astronomer to display his knowledge and share his data about the night sky. It is a symbol of broader social progress, as it is a place for disseminating knowledge to the public and is suggestive of a society that is becoming more sophisticated and objective in its relationship with nature. Finally, it symbolizes a communal space, where the individual becomes blended into a larger mass of people, drowning out individualized reactions and perspectives in the “applause” (Line 4) that greets the end of the astronomer’s speech. As the speaker’s reaction reflects, such spaces can sometimes feel overwhelming or suffocating, prompting the necessity to return to solitude and a more primitive way of connecting with the natural world.
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By Walt Whitman
