Walt Whitman's When I Heard The Learn D Astronomer

Do lectures and books really teach us anything about life? This is a question that famous American poet, Walt Whitman, dared to ask as he started his life’s work in poetry. Whitman dared to challenge preexisting ideas in the world, especially on the subject of education. He continually added radical ideas to his own personal pedagogy, or method of teaching. As Robert Louis Stevenson stated, “He was a theoriser about society before he was a poet.” (Stevenson) To understand Whitman’s ideas on the subject of education, we must first understand that he was actually an uneducated man, who had taught himself by reading books. The poetry resulting from his life experiences and thoughts has brought various ideas that have changed parts of society forever.

In this poem, Whitman describes a scene in which he leaves a lecture out of pure boredom and disappointment at the value of receiving a lecture. By the end of the poem, Whitman describes looking up at the stars, which the astronomer or professor, was “teaching” about, and learning more in that moment than he had the rest of the night. To conclude these thoughts he ends with the line, “Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.” (432) Walt’s main point through this piece is that experiences teach much more than the recitation of words or the examination of data could ever teach. This idea probably directly stems from his lack of formal education. Whitman was a strong believer in the individual as well; he believed that an individual teaching themselves through experience was more valuable than any school. Like Scott Trudell said, this piece, “…highlights the stress between the self-referential and even contained method of science, and the intuition and romantic knowledge of the individual.” (Trudell) Once again, this poem highlights Whitman’s radical ideas that challenged all preexisting education

The two selections focus mainly on traveling the journey of life on your own to learn and also the role, if any is to be played, that the teacher should uphold. These two pieces give substantial insight because of the powerful phrases which, as Havelock Ellis stated, “…reveal a keen perception of the strangeness and beauty of things, lines that possess a simplicity and grandeur….” (Ellis) One of Whitman’s most straightforward lines of these pieces is, “Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you, You must travel it for yourself.” (Song 46) Once again, the theme of individually learning through life is represented, and nearly shouted, through Whitman’s thoughts. However, in the next selection, he mentions an actual teacher for once. The best summary of these words are in the last line, “He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” (Song 47) In other words, if you are a teacher, the best way you can teach is in a way that your students can surpass your knowledge and achievements. Still, he emphasizes the value in the individual student rather than a