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.
I feel like I can really relate to this poem. The way I understand this poem is that
Whitman is sitting in a class, most likely a college class because it is a lecture and the person
speaking is an astronomer. Whitman just wants to see the stars, that is what he is most
interested in, but the astronomer was just showing the class "diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them". He finds it boring that instead of seeing the stars and talking about stars
that all he's seeing is mathematical work.
I feel like I can relate to this poem because I've found myself plenty of times being
uninterested in what I am learning in class because we first have to learn the history or
background behind the topic. For example, in physics sometimes I would find myself
bored and uninterested but then when we got to the lab where we could actually see what
was happening instead of doing theoretical equations for the events that happened I was
more interested.
When Whitman finally left the lecture and felt relieved at looking at the stars is how I feel
when we finally get to do a lab or when I get to leave a class and relax. It's good to relax and
take a break and just get away from all the stress.
This poem shows that leaving something for a little to make yourself feel better is okay.
Putting down some work or letting go of the stress is something you need in life just like Walt
Whitman left the class in order to make himself feel better.
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