¡§When I Heard The Learn¡¦d Astronomer¡¨Walt Whitman
Through the poem ：When I Heard the Learn・d Astronomer；, Whitman leaves a dominant impression of his own view of astronomy and it・s abundance. He describes how the speaker recounts a day sitting through an astronomy lecture, listening to the astronomer・s dull mathematical descriptions of the stars by charts and figures. Gradually the speaker gets sick of its content. Instead, the speaker finds understanding and satisfaction just by wandering off plainly looking up at the night sky.
The speaker generates different moods in the course of the poem by a shift of tone of voice. Although the poem is written in one single stanza, we can clearly see that there is a division between the first half compared to the second half of the poem. There are specific word choice sequences that support the voice shift. The ：proofs；, ：figures；, ：columns；, ：charts；, ：diagrams； are all words that imply the dry, stale connotation of the lecturer. The lecturer, by ：[dividing], and [measuring]； things, turns the speaker ：tired and sick；. After this, word choice sequence changes to make the rest of the poem into a dreamier tone. Whitman describes how the speaker ：[glides] out； and ：[wanders]； off by himself in the ：mystical； night to silently gaze up at the stars. With words that offer different connotations, Whitman achieves the immediate effect of how scientific deciphering of nature cannot compare to self- experience and observation.
The form of the poem also helps to enhance this comparison. Although the poem is written in free verse, the words in the first half appear to look like a chart with words uniformly distributed. ：When； is repeated four times at the start of each line to give readers a sense of how science is repetitious and boring. However, approaching the last half of the poem, there is a sudden change from a staccato rhythm of words into a smoother one in order to make the tone more free and relaxing. Alliteration of the hissing；s・s is included in the last half to generate
The speaker generates different moods in the course of the poem by a shift of tone of voice. Although the poem is written in one single stanza, we can clearly see that there is a division between the first half compared to the second half of the poem. There are specific word choice sequences that support the voice shift. The ：proofs；, ：figures；, ：columns；, ：charts；, ：diagrams； are all words that imply the dry, stale connotation of the lecturer. The lecturer, by ：[dividing], and [measuring]； things, turns the speaker ：tired and sick；. After this, word choice sequence changes to make the rest of the poem into a dreamier tone. Whitman describes how the speaker ：[glides] out； and ：[wanders]； off by himself in the ：mystical； night to silently gaze up at the stars. With words that offer different connotations, Whitman achieves the immediate effect of how scientific deciphering of nature cannot compare to self- experience and observation.
The form of the poem also helps to enhance this comparison. Although the poem is written in free verse, the words in the first half appear to look like a chart with words uniformly distributed. ：When； is repeated four times at the start of each line to give readers a sense of how science is repetitious and boring. However, approaching the last half of the poem, there is a sudden change from a staccato rhythm of words into a smoother one in order to make the tone more free and relaxing. Alliteration of the hissing；s・s is included in the last half to generate