What is the tone of Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"?

The tone of this poem, for the most part, is overwhelmingly weary. The word "overwhelming," indeed, is very apt here: Whitman employs parallel structures and repetition ("When..." "When..." "When...") to create a sense of monotony and convey how little interest he really feels in what "the learn'd astronomer" has to say. The impression the poem gives is one of being confined, like something meant to be calculated: "to add, divide, and measure." The poet can only endure so much of this before he states that he "became tired and sick."

The shift in tone between the first core section of the poem and the final three lines is almost palpable. From being "tired and sick," the speaker is then "rising," "gliding," as soon as he leaves the lecture room. The reader can almost feel the relief as the speaker breaks out into the "mystical night air," the repetitive drone of the calculations in the lecture room disappearing, to be replaced by the simple joy of being "by myself," "in perfect silence." There is no doubt that to look "in perfect silence at the stars" is more rewarding, in the opinion of this poem's speaker, than to be confined to a classroom attempting to analyze "proofs."

Tone refers to the narrator's or writer's attitude and feelings about a particular subject. Word choice is a major indicator of a piece's particular tone. This poem's tone is not consistent throughout the entire poem. There is a moment when the tone completely shifts.

The poem begins with a tone of frustration and even perhaps incredulity. The speaker is attending a lecture on stars and astronomy. He is likely expecting to be wowed by seeing stars, and he is shocked to discover that the lecture is all about math, data, graphs, and measurements. The first three lines of the poem read almost like a list. It's a bit boring, and it's clear from line 5 that the narrator is also bored and frustrated.

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

He's obviously not a mathematician, because he doesn't see any beauty in those numbers. His response is to get up and leave. He heads outside into the night where he can see actual stars. This is where the tone shift comes. The final three lines of the poem start to include descriptive adjectives. He's not just outside in the night air. He's in the "mystical moist night-air." Additionally, he doesn't trudge or stomp out there. He glides out of the building. It's a tone that tells readers that the speaker luxuriates in the beauty of experiencing nature and the stars with his own eyes. Studying the math of stars is frustratingly boring to him because he can't see the natural beauty. He would rather experience it instead of learn about it.

What is the meaning of Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"?

The poem falls into two sections, even though they are not indicated on the page. In the first, the narrator is inside the lecture room, listening to a well educated astronomer, a "learned" man, explain the universe in terms of mathematics, with his charts and diagrams to be added, divided, and measured. In the second part of the poem, the narrator goes outside alone. The poem is developed in the contrast between these two settings.

Inside the lecture room, there is "much applause" by the audience, but the narrator begins to feel "tired and sick." When he removes himself from the room and from the astronomer's lecture, however, the change of setting suggests a change in his feelings:

. . . I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time,
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

The narrator has placed himself in a romantic natural setting that is beautiful and appealing with the reference to the "mystical moist night air." In this setting, he does not see the stars as objects on charts and diagrams. He views them "in perfect silence" in the heavens, their natural setting. The silence itself is an natural element of beauty that contrasts the noisy lecture room.

The poem can be interpreted as expressing a romantic view. The beauty, mystery, and grandeur of the universe cannot be grasped intellectually, only spiritually.

Whitman's tendency to assign primacy to the subjective experience is something that emerges from the poem.  Whitman's meaning is to explore how personalised, the idea of the individual experience being vital to consciousness, is something that permeates all study and all aspects of being.  Even when one is confronted by the supposed strict domain of science, Whitman argues that there is an intellectual process that is personalized, an approach that argues individuals do not need to be tethered to how things should be.  When the speaker of the poem "wanders" or explores the world of space and astrological dimension on their own, away from the "learn'd astronomer," there is real meaning present.  It is through this personalized and individualized exploration where meaning is derived.  In this light, Whitman is calling on individuals to explore their passions and field of study with a sense of personalized voice to what they do.  In Whitman's world, it is not nearly enough to be successful or demonstrate competency in what one does.  Rather, one has to find and harness their personalized voice in this process.

What is Walt Whitman's message in "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"?

Whitman seeks to expand the appreciation of both scientific phenomena and the natural world in this particular poem.  Representing a sense of American Romanticism, Whitman appreciates to a certain extent the astronomer's explanations (The title does not seem to be a sardonic reference of the astronomer's knowledge.)  Whitman does possess an appreciation for "the proofs" and "the figures," and does hold a certain respect for "the diagrams" and "the charts" along with the processes that account for them.  Where Whitman holds some level of divergence with this rationalist approach to the scientific phenomena is that Whitman feels there is a sense of wonderment and amazement that is not fully recognizable through the scientific method.  When Whitman describes his leaving the lecture hall as "riding" and "gliding off," it marks an active break with the established normative process of science and begins an embracing of the imaginative aspects of astronomy, and science in general. This is heightened with the use of the verb "wandering," indicating a certain heavenly and unexplained quality to the phenomena of stars and their alignment in the sky.  The "perfect silence" and image of the night sky lends an air of reverence which is not necessarily evident in the objective approach of the "learn'd astronomer"  and his applauding audience.  It seems that Whitman is embracing a form of negative capability in the picture he sees in the last line.  This idea of being comfortable with the unknown is something which is not amplified through the scientific approach, in its very nature seeking to quantify and explain.  Whitman is pointed in suggesting that while Science and rational thought does have a place in re-describing the natural world, there is a level of individual amazement and wonderment which will and should never be supplanted with rational thought.  This level or sphere which signifies the expansion of moral and individual imagination is intrinsic to the individual, the reason why he leaves the lecture hall when the group applauds the astronomer.