“When I Heard a Learn’d Astronomer”, is a poem written by Walt Whitman. He was an American poet, essayist and journalist and was amongst the most influential poets in American canon. He was born in New York in 1819 and died in New Jersey in 1892. He was a part of the transition between transcendentalism, the belief of goodness in both people and nature, and realism, attempt of representation of a subject matter in its true form. The poem is a part of a collection in Leaves of Grass. Leaves of Grass is a book of poems that started with 12 poems. During his life he rewrote the book many times, it went from 12 to over 400 poems. The poems in this book were written representing Whitman’s philosophy of life and humanity. In “When I Heard the Learn’d …show more content…
He however becomes drained from all of the information so he escapes outside; where he enjoys the silence and cool night sky. There is so much to take in when it comes to nature. The planets, stars and etc. outside of our atmosphere has a lot of information to understand how and why. It can be overwhelming with the explanation of every detail. The basics of nature is taken in better with experience then it is to be taught. Nature is full of science, math and spirituality. Math and science surrounds us physically in everything, there is no getting around it. For example, the Sun rising and setting, as the Earth rotates on its axis. Spirituality is in each person and their beliefs as individuals. In ancient text, the Sun is regarded as the physical embodiment of a spiritual force. Nature is full of science and has meanings to each individual. Whitman was into expressing human nature as nature is in true form. He wrote as he experienced life. Astronomy is math, science and is connected to something which is bigger than ourselves. Math and science is compatible with spirituality. There are many interpretations of humanity and the natural world, it depends on the individual that is doing the interpreting. There are also many parts to nature. Unfortunately,