Question

At the end of "Science and the Sense of Wonder," Asimov notes that everything he has described was discovered after Walt Whitman's time. Imagine that Whitman had known about all those discoveries. Would he have felt differently about astronomy? In a paragraph, respond to that question. State your opinion, and cite details from the essay to support your points.

Answer 1

If you are referring to the poem, "I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer", Whitman probably would NOT have felt differently about astronomy.


The major issue that the speaker has to the lecture given by the astronomer is that all the facts and figures he gives to teach his audience don't reveal the actual wonder of looking at the stars. The speaker in the poem prefers learning about nature by being in it. He notes that every other person in the audience was fully engaged in the lecture, but that he was "ill" and feeling bored.
There is no doubt Whitman would probably be fascinated with all the knowledge Asimov could report about astronomy, but he'd want to learn about it from observation in nature rather than a lecture.