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American
Literature: Romanticism Student Midterm Samples 2015 2b. Short Essay |
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Roslynn Kelley
A Quest Towards Understanding: A Brief Analysis of The Romantic Journey Narrative as Developed by Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
The course on American Romanticism began with Walt Whitman’s “When I
Heard the Learn’ Astronomer.” This is an
important text in understanding how a journey narrative functions in American
Romanticism because it demonstrates how an individual reconciles the exterior
and the interior of their environment and themselves.
When I Heard the Learn’d
Astronomer
[1] When
I heard the learn'd astronomer;
[2] When
the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me.
[3] When
I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
[4] When
I, sitting, heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the
lecture room,
[5] How
soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
[6] Till
rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
[7] In
the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
[8] Look'd
up in perfect silence at the stars.
Whitman uses realistic descriptions in this poem: “…I heard…I was
shown…sitting…,” these elements show how the speaker is physically engaged with
his external environment. He is an
active participant in the Astronomer’s lecture and he internalizes the
information that is given. This is the
first stage of the journey because he is a part of a group of individuals that
connect with the lecturer and to each other.
They are a mass of people and are not separate from one another since:
“…with much applause in the lecture room,” others are acting as a single unit;
that is, they are creating the unified sound of applause.
It is important to note that the speaker does not participate in the
applauding; at this point in the text, he is observing and listening to his
exterior environment. What is also
important is that this group of individuals is an unnatural gathering because
they are together under the guise of discussing nature, but are doing so outside
of nature. In this realization, the text
demonstrates how the speaker moves from being a part of the interactive
crowd/unit to separating himself from the mass.
In this removal, he begins another part of the journey; the speaker
transitions from a connection with the group –by being a part of it– to becoming
sick and he then disconnects himself from the mass: “How soon, unaccountable, I
became tired and sick;/Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself.”
He cannot reconcile his exterior with his interior while he is a member
of group of individuals acting as a single body; that is, in order to unify
himself, he must detach himself first physically and then mentally.
Sound plays an important role in this text because it moves throughout
the poem. First, there is the act of
hearing the lecturer, second, there is the act of hearing the applause, and
finally, there is silence. How Whitman uses noise in the context of the poem
also demonstrates the journey of the speaker because he initially participates
in the sound; that is, he “hears” it. This is Romantic because it takes the
speaker from “the here and now” to a noiseless environment in which he can unite
the pure exterior with his now uncluttered and silent interior (Course
objectives 1a).
Finally, the speaker unifies the exterior and interior by directly
connecting with nature: “In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to
time,/Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.”
The speaker does not need to stare at the night sky, nor does he need to
hear anyone describing what it is he is observing.
The ethereal word “mystical” does not discredit or render the journey
magical; what the word does do is show how the unity between the speakers
exterior and interior comes together like the “night-air.” This is important
because “night” is not a tangible element and “air,” which is typically unfelt,
has a moist quality to it making it more of feeling thing. The connection
between “night” and “air” is a union between the
seen and the
felt and by placing the hyphen
between “night” and “air,” Whitman connects the two words in a seamlessly
essential manner; the speaker sees and feels nature, whereas his other senses
are silent. This connection concludes
the journey because the speaker has achieved unity between nature and himself.
This poem contributes to my understanding of American Romanticism because
it exemplifies the aspect of the genre in which I am most interested: the
journey towards unity and resolution. I
feel that throughout the text, Whitman uses realism to demonstrate the
incompleteness of how man tries to find unity between him and nature.
The journey narrative in this poem helps me see how this idea functions
in the other texts we have examined in the course of this class.
I see the journey narrative in Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” in
the context of Whitman’s poem; that is, the speaker in the poem removes himself
physically from the unnatural environment of the lecture hall and into nature;
the minister is only able to create a boundary between himself and the unnatural
environment of his town, congregation, etc. The minister controls how he
sees and how he
feels.
By starting the course with this poem, I believe that it will enable me
to sense and further examine journey narratives in texts that may not be as
apparent.
