Original poem reprinted online here: "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman Originally read: May 31, 2013 More information about the Poet: Walt Whitman The poem is composed of two quatrains even though it's one stanza. There's a sense of observation and response where the speaker in the first stanza observes, and simply states what he observed, and then the response is a little more complicated. So with the first four lines: 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, The anaphora of "when" sets up a build up of the scene, and character. "When" refers to a time, place, and scene, but also informs the reader that there's an observatio...
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