Walt Whitman's When I Heard The Learned Astronomer

Walt Whitman, generally ignored in his time, has come to be recognized as a great poet among the American romantics. His works emphasize romantic ideals such as reverence towards nature, examination of the inner self, and distaste for scientific thought. Whitman's poems piece together life lessons and observations of existence into a message which promotes reader based reflection. His strongest works are debatable, but his poems with the strongest messages remain clear. "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer," "A noiseless patient spider," and "A Clear Midnight" each present a fascinating insight into the nature of human existence. "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer" describes a speaker who is unaccountably disgusted by an astronomy lecture, but feels better once he leaves to look at the stars. This discontent with categorical and unimaginative scientific thought is an important point of romantic ideals. The emotional bounty of this poem is the message of loving the mystical qualities of nature versus the unenthusiastic charts and figures provided by science. It advocates a respect and awe for the natural world, as well as a desire to experience it and in turn one's own inner being. Whitman utilizes many poetic devices to deliver his message. The first four lines of the poem begin with
the world when, and proceed to catalog various images associated with science and research. This technique is used to demonstrate how the astronomer's lecture is a mental onslaught which ceaselessly ignores the grander parts of nature and instead obsesses over numbers and statistics. Once the speaker exits the lecture, the poem becomes less frantic and more contemplative. The speaker is free to ignore scientific endeavors and just enjoy the tranquility of the night sky. There are other poetic devices that assist the poem's message. Simple diction and shortness aid the clarity of the poem, allowing the reader to extract the essence of it without being bogged down in unnecessarily complicated words. Free verse allows the poem to follow a certain flow which portrays an overwhelmed feeling at first, followed by ease and relaxation. The tone is one of careful contemplation, something useful in perpetuating a message of awed appreciation. Imagery is a key element to this poem and is used to catalog, which occurs in the beginning, and to enter "the mystical moist night-air" towards the end. "A noiseless patient spider" consists of two stanzas. The first describes a single spider isolated on a great height attempting to create a web. The second stanza describes the speaker's soul, something which is in a time of great unrest and turmoil and is attempting to find stability. This poem is chiefly an examination of the speaker's inner self, but also a comparison of human existence to nature. Essentially, this poem makes connections between humans and nature and how the speaker so desires the stability the spider can achieve. It is a combination of personal reflection and reverence of nature. The tone of this poem is hopeful and slightly desperate. The speaker seems to crave stability of mind with slight madness, though not enough to lose it. Imagery is more important here then in the first poem. Whitman's use of images like "explore the vacant vast surrounding," "ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect'" and "the ductile anchor" all create a sense of being hopelessly lost somewhere nameless and unfulfilling. Smaller poetic techniques are once again utilized. Cataloging, for example, is used to great effect in portraying a trying struggle ("It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself"). Diction remains simple and relatively to the point, with some words which flesh out the poem's tone. There is no rhyme scheme evident in this or any or Whitman's works, something which neither detracts nor adds to it. Another absent element is simile and metaphor. Whitman's style presents his themes with little effort to the reader. "A Clear Midnight" is an image-filled examination of sleep, the properties of escape it provides, and the freedom it grants the waking soul.
Upon a "certain hour", or sleep, the speaker beckons his soul to fly free, escape the day, and ponder its own themes. The speaker's soul does not necessarily appreciate the day's happenings and thoughts, so it drifts in dreaming to a place where it can think about "night, sleep, death, and the stars." The daytime mind of the speaker, most likely representing a restricted or bound form, thinks about things it is perhaps not naturally inclined to do. This poem is like a snap-shot of the human soul between consciousness and
unconsciousness. Once again cataloging is an important technique. Sets of images such as "emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best" provide rich content to the poem. Imagery in general finds several potent examples here. Pieces such as "free flight into the wordless" and several others add accentuation throughout the poem. An interesting aspect of all of Whitman's work is how he addresses his own soul like it is another person entirely. His speakers converse to it almost as if they were Shakespearian lovers. Walt Whitman was a master American romantic who spread themes of natural beauty, self reflection, and disagreement with scientific thought. His poems are ripe with imagery and are heavily atmospheric. His messages, once ignored, are now highly regarded by the intellectual community. Whitman died during March 1892 with several partially successful publications which remained disregarded for some time afterwards.