Question

Read and analyze "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman. What Romantic ideas does it express, and how does the structure of the poem reinforce the meaning?
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 the 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,
mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

Answer 1

The romantic ideas that the speaker expresses are sentimentality and the need to get in touch with nature.

We can arrive at this answer because:

• Romanticism was a literary movement that stimulated poets' sentimentality and the need to get in touch with nature.
• We can see these two types of ideas in the poem presented above.

These ideas are shown in the last stanza, in the line in which the speaker claims that he became sad and tired, reaching the point of needing to wander alone in nature and watch the stars.

This can be seen in the lines:

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

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

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

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

More information about romanticism:

brainly.com/question/3784005