The poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman was originally published in 1865 in his poetry collection Drum-Taps and later included in Leaves of Grass in 1867. The poem describes the speaker's experience listening to a scientific lecture by an astronomer who presents the stars through "proofs," "figures," "charts," and "diagrams," which the audience receives with much applause. However, the speaker feels tired and sick from this detailed, analytical approach. Seeking a more personal connection, he leaves the lecture hall and wanders outside into the mystical moist night air, where he looks up in perfect silence at the stars. This shift highlights the contrast between scientific knowledge and intuitive, experiential wisdom—the speaker's preference for experiencing the stars directly rather than through technical data.
Here is the full text of the poem: 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 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,
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. This poem reflects Whitman's
Romantic view that true understanding and wonder come from direct experience
with nature, as opposed to abstract, mathematical explanation. It suggests a
deeper, more mysterious appreciation of the universe beyond what can be
captured by scientific analysis.
