[BG-2025-26] ENG3U ...

Read  the Walt Whitman poem titled When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer posted below. Then rearrange the lines by shortening them to give the poem a more traditional appearance and rhythm. Vary the meter of the lines according to where you think one line should end and the next line should begin.

For example, make the 4th line into three lines, thus:                                                                          
When I sitting heard the astronomer       (10 beats)                                                                   
where he lectured with much applause   (7 beats)                                                                
in the lecture-room,                                   (5 beats)
How soon ...........................

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer 
by Walt Whitman                                          

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.

After you have restructured the form of the poem, write a brief opinion as to what you think the poem is about. Remember what the stated themes of today’s lesson are about.