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Transcript

"WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER"

Abigail Chapman and Sydney Laub

Epiphany

21st Century Uses

Whitman comes to the realization that the stars don't need an explanation, and there is beauty in simplicity and new perspectives.

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were arranged 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, from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Repetition

The title is repeated to express the importance of its connotative meaning.

AMC's, Breaking Bad, frequently uses Walt Whitmans poetry as a plot element throughout the series.

Characters sometimes quote Whitman in the show and point out similarities between them and Whitman.

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Whitman finds his way into the night, looking up at the stars, he doesn't try to explain them or express their beauty.

Imagery

The formation of mental images, figures, or things, or of images collectively.

"perfect silence..."

"mystical moist night-air"

Title

"When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

Denotative Meaning: He heard the astronomer.

Connotative: The astronomer is talking about something that had an effect on Whitman, but we don’t know what yet.

Vocab:

Learn'd- smart or well-educated

Whitman uses learn'd to almost make fun of the astronomer.

Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which something is exaggerated to emphasize it.

"gliding"- Whitman cannot actually glide out of the lecture hall.

Whitman leaves mid-lecture, going to wander by himself, making the reader wonder: Where is he going?

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were arranged 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, from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Vocabulary:

Proofs- demonstrations of the truth of a statement of equation.

Catalogs

Whitman is listing the tools that the astronomer uses to teach the class about stars:

  • proofs
  • figures
  • columns
  • charts
  • diagrams
  • adding
  • dividing
  • measuring

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,

Meaning

The astronomer is breaking apart the stars and taking away their meaning. The astronomer is having the class look at the stars in a complex way, when, according to Whitman, it should be simple.

Repetition

Whitman repeats the word "when" because he wants to stress the importance of what was happening that led to his realization of his emotions toward the stars.

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Vocab

Unaccountable: unable to be explained.

Enjambment

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

After the astronomer, breaks apart the stars by making them so literal and meaningless, Whitman feels that the lecture has physically made him sick.

Whitman splits up the two lines:

"When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,"

and:

"How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;"

to emphasize how he feels about the astronomers lecture.

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were arranged 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,

Meaning

The other people in the class are appreciating the astronomers knowledge of the stars.

Theme and Recap

The astronomer teaching the class is making people examine the stars in very complex ways, almost breaking them apart and not giving them what they deserve. Whitman comes to the conclusion that you need to look at the stars as a whole, with no explanation.

Whitman is trying to express the beauty in simplicity.

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