|
|
|
READ THIS
The purpose of an unseen poem is to test your skills against something you haven't learned. Read this
poem several times, therefore, and answer the questions in the right column.
Please don't use the "Need help" links until you have thoroughly considered the poem for yourself. Only
when you have attempted the questions to the best of your ability will the "Need help" suggestions allow
you to learn.
READ THIS POEM:
When I heard the learn'd astronomer
Walt Whitman
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,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Provide an explanation as to why the initial four lines of this poem get longer and longer. (2)
[Need help?]
Does it have anything to do with the fact that, as the speech gets longer and longer, so the poet becomes
more and more bored?
|
What is the poet's attitude towards the "learn'd astronomer"? Explain. (2)
[Need help?]
Does not the poet find the astronomer to be highly intelligent but very boring?
|
Explain the paradox between the view of the stars:
- as the "learn'd astronomer" portrays it;
[Need help?]
The "learn'd astronomer" sees the stars as quantifiable and able to be viewed rationally in a
scientific manner.
The poet, on the other hand, sees the stars as mystical and able only to be viewed in a spiritual way.
|
How do the words "in the mystical moist night-air" convey the poet's feeling when he is watching
the stars? (2)
[Need help?]
Did you notice the use of alliteration -- the repetition of the "m" sound in "mystical" and
"moist"?
This alliteration conveys the idea of concentrated thought, or mystical thought. The sound "um"
when repeated as a musical note is used by eastern mystics in their transcendental meditation.
The alliteration therefore conveys a magical, mystical tone.
|
The word "unaccountable" can be seen as a pun or a play on words. Explain why this is
so. (2)
[Need help?]
There are so many stars that they are no longer countable -- they are un-countable.
The poet, on the other hand, cannot explain why he becomes bored with the "learn'd astronomer's"
lecture. It is unaccountable why he gets bored.
|
Try another worksheet?
See also:
|
|
This document is copyrighted. No part of it may be reproduced in any form
whatever without explicit permission in writing from the author.
The sole exception is for educational institutions which may wish to reproduce
it as a handout for their students.
|
|
