4B+Moores

media type="custom" key="24595616" Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is a poem about learning. Specifically, it's a poem about the process of gaining knowledge, the difference between learning through being taught and learning through experience. Whitman describes the satisfaction of learning through your own experiences, as he cherishes the "perfect silence" of the night sky and its stars. Whitman's allegory on education gives his poem a sense of solace and tranquility, despite the negative connotation of his language in the midst of his writing. I believe this is Whitman's way of expressing the uplifting feeling of fulfillment when one acquires knowledge simply through their own means or via real-life experiences. I feel that my reciting of this poem did justice to his work, as I emphasized important points and added a dynamic contrast from the beginning of the poem compared to the end.

Response to Whitman's "I Hear America Singing"...

// Evolution of Song //

Forget your thoughts of conformity; a new age approaches! Times are changing, but the odyssey for tranquility ends only When the people hark our harmonies: Harmonies pleading mercy, begging for a right To pursue what was promised generations ago...

What was once a melody of fellowship and friend Soon became a cry of the common man and his steed- A tune only played on the smallest of violins- As the minority falls victim to neglect and broken trust, And dissonance fills potent the bleak air of forgotten dreams, Dreams bearing more depth than the heart of our "majesty" Yet still crushed, oppressed by the hierarchy, For every man's a peasant to a king.

So come, brothers and sisters alike, And resonate with me, your song of sadness; Our potential knows no bounds But those of our spirits- and our spirits wave high. Sing with me our melancholy, And may the burden of inequity be lifted //With Liberty and Justice For All//