When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

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 the 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. This poem is a great example of how a person does not have to understand something to love it or think it is beautiful.The narrator is trying to understand stars and gets bored and then goes outside and looks at the stars and finds that he loves the stars even without understanding them. This reminds me of the poem  Of Mere Being. We do not have to add human meaning to everything sometimes it can just be. The stars can make people happy without understanding them . In regards to the structure of the poem i think that the way Walt Whitman repeats "when" and capitalizes it shows how monotonous and boring trying to learn about the stars is to him. Until Walt leaves the room every line starts with "When" and it shows how the lecture drags on and how boring it is. I can relate to that because i have been in some very boring classes. I think Walt Whitman wants people to get out of this poem that knowing everything is not necessary that sometimes we can enjoy things we do not understand.