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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
One of the defining features of Whitman’s work is his fascination with – and deep love for – the natural world. While “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” gestures towards the divide between the scientific approach to nature and the more emotional, individualized approach of the poem’s speaker (and almost certainly of Whitman himself), Whitman’s passion for the natural world more generally is one of the recurring themes throughout Leaves of Grass. In his poetry, Whitman celebrates nature for its beauty and its many mysteries, while also drawing connections between the free spirit he believed himself to possess and the wild, untamed landscapes that allowed him to be himself. In other poems such as “On the Beach At Night Alone” and “The First Dandelion” (See Further Reading and Resources), Whitman’s characteristic preoccupation with the natural world is evident. With this in mind, it is not difficult to understand why the thematic movement in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” is towards a more direct experience of nature and away from the scientific inquiries of the astronomer. Whitman himself, like the poem’s speaker, preferred to experience nature in his own way, without the demystifying tendencies of a more academic approach.
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
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I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman