When I Heard the Learn`d Astronomer

Learning Objectives
For pages 133–138, 311
In studying this text, you
will focus on the following
objectives:
Literary Study: Analyzing
free verse. Analyzing historical
narratives.
Reading: Paraphrasing.
I Hear America Singing and
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
by Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing and When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
133
I Hear America Singing and
Before You Read
When I
Heard
the
Learn’d Astronomer
Connect to the Poems
To Whitman, working people were vital to building the United States. How do the
people you know seem to feel about their jobs? Do they seem lively and cheerful
or sluggish and unhappy when they go back to work on Monday? How do you feel
about the jobs you have held so far? How do you hope to feel about your own
profession some day? Create a web based on the relationships you see between
people and their work.
Attitudes Toward Work
Build Background
•
As a writer, Whitman believed in gathering experience from every possible source.
He traveled, read, and worked as an office boy, journalist, and volunteer nurse.
•
Unlike most poets before him, Whitman wrote about everyday experiences.
•
Although Whitman is today considered one of the great American poets, people
did not immediately accept or appreciate his poetry because it did not use rhyme
or meter.
Now, without looking at what you have just read, write down two facts about
Whitman’s life that you think may influence his poetry.
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Set Purposes for Reading
As you read the two poems, ask yourself how Whitman uses ordinary details and long
poetic lines to capture the personality of the nation and its people.
134
Literary Element Free Verse
Free verse is poetry that has irregular meter, or an irregular pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables. The lengths of the lines usually differ, and the lines may not be
grouped together in stanzas. Instead, the way in which the words and phrases are
arranged and repeated creates a natural, conversational rhythm. Unlike poetry that
has a rhyme scheme, free verse often sounds like spoken language. With a partner,
discuss the kinds of effects Whitman might achieve by using free verse. Make a list of
those effects.
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Reading Strategy Paraphrase
When you paraphrase, you put something you have read into your own words.
Unlike a summary, which includes only main ideas and is always shorter than the
original, a paraphrase includes details and may be as long as or longer than the
original. The idea is to make the paraphrased version as straightforward and direct as
possible. Paraphrasing can help you absorb the meaning of difficult or old-fashioned
language. As you read the poems, break down long sentences and restate them in
your own words. Use this chart to record your paraphrases.
Original Passage or Lines
My Paraphrase
I Hear America Singing and When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
135
I Hear America Singing
Reading Strategy
Paraphrase Rewrite the first three
lines of the poem in your own
words. Even though the three lines
are all part of a single sentence,
you may break up the lines into
separate sentences.
5
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10
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe1
and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat,
the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing
as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning,
or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
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Literary Element
Free Verse With a partner, make
a list of the characteristics of free
verse that you find in the last four
lines of the poem.
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1. Blithe means “lighthearted” or “cheerful.”
136
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
5
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.
Literary Element
Free Verse With a partner, read
the first three lines aloud. Then
make a list of the characteristics of
free verse that you find here.
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Reading Strategy
MY NOTES
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Paraphrase Paraphrase the
highlighted lines. Use the sentence
frames below.
I was sitting in the classroom
where I heard __________________
__________________ . The audience
______________________. For some
unknown reason I ______________
______________________________ .
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When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
137
Singing and
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
I Hear America
After You Read
Connect to the Poems
Look back at the web you created on page 134. Then discuss the following
questions with a partner.
•
How would you summarize the attitudes toward work that you have
illustrated on your web?
•
What causes people to experience joy and satisfaction in their work?
•
How did your observations differ from Whitman’s?
Literary Element Free Verse
Revisit the list of possible effects of free verse you made with your partner. Copy
the list of effects into the chart below, and then place a check mark in the column
next to the ones that proved to be true.
Possible Effects
True?
After you have filled out the chart, discuss with your partner whether there were
any effects that you missed. Then discuss the ways in which the poems might be
different if they were written in a different pattern.
Reading Strategy Paraphrase
Review your paraphrases in the side columns of the two poems. How did
paraphrasing each line help you understand key ideas and the poet’s message?
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For more practice, see page 311.
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