Lecture 2.3.1. Science Meets Art
Lecture Overview
Teacher reads aloud the poem:
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.
It requires about 45 seconds to read this poem – all poetry must be read aloud at some point in your analysis. It’s how you notice word combinations like “mystical moist'': which is an example of figurative language (aka “literary device”). Alliteration.
One thing to notice that makes it structurally different from the other poems we have been reading – the lines vary from short to long. There is no rhyme scheme, there is no set meter.
The first line has 10 beats
The fourth line 23 beats. Because the 4th line repeats some of the same words as the opening line, the poet could have cut the 4th line to make it 10 beats.
The poet is not concerned with a traditional form. This is called free verse. Verse is another word for the lines of poetry or songs. It’s used more often in music “the first verse, the second verse). So free verse means the stanzas or the lines vary, don’t rhyme and there is no fixed meter or metrical pattern.
