When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

Walt Whitman

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1865

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Authorial Context

One of the defining features of Whitman’s work is his fascination with – and deep love for – the natural world. While “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” gestures towards the divide between the scientific approach to nature and the more emotional, individualized approach of the poem’s speaker (and almost certainly of Whitman himself), Whitman’s passion for the natural world more generally is one of the recurring themes throughout Leaves of Grass. In his poetry, Whitman celebrates nature for its beauty and its many mysteries, while also drawing connections between the free spirit he believed himself to possess and the wild, untamed landscapes that allowed him to be himself. In other poems such as “On the Beach At Night Alone” and “The First Dandelion” (See Further Reading and Resources), Whitman’s characteristic preoccupation with the natural world is evident. With this in mind, it is not difficult to understand why the thematic movement in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” is towards a more direct experience of nature and away from the scientific inquiries of the astronomer. Whitman himself, like the poem’s speaker, preferred to experience nature in his own way, without the demystifying tendencies of a more academic approach.

Socio-Historical Context

Whitman was born, lived, and died all within the confines of the 19th century. In his 72 years of life, he witnessed many enormously important developments in both technological and scientific advancement, including the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), vaccine development, geographical exploration in the third world, and the proliferation of steam engines and factories. This was also a time of hugely significant social change, in which more and more people abandoned traditional agrarian ways of life in the countryside in favor of moving to larger urban centers for better work opportunities. This shift from a more rural-centric society to a heavily industrialized, urban-centric society made the Age of Industrialization in Europe and North America a time of rapid social and natural transformation.

Whitman spent much of his own life trying to stay close to nature and enjoying the varied landscapes of the United States. Whitman’s open love for the natural world and his mild distrust of rigid academic and social mores was, in some ways, at odds with the more general tenor of his times. While living in a country that still boasted many countless miles of wild spaces, Whitman was nevertheless surely aware of the many changes taking place in the developed world; his poetry is therefore a testament to the charms of remembering the value of nature and a simpler way of life.

Literary Context

While Whitman’s greatest work didn’t start to appear until the mid-1850’s, his literary spirit is more closely akin to a movement that blossomed in the late 1790’s and the early 1800’s, known as Romanticism. In English, this movement is heavily associated with figures such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, although the movement boasted many other more minor adherents. Romanticism is known for its focus on nature and its celebration of the individual spirit against wider social progress. Romantic poets such as William Blake and John Clare expressed open skepticism of the more industrialized way of life, while poets such as Wordsworth and Keats revealed ambivalence towards the ongoing march of scientific knowledge, which they suggested could rob nature (and life) of some of its mysteries (See Further Reading and Resources). In suggesting a more individual and wonder-driven approach to nature, Whitman aligns himself in spirit to the English Romantics who came before him in the poetic tradition.