Tuesday, November 29, 2011

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer Read Walt Whitman’s poem below. What implications may it have, not just for this course, but for your...

If you are pursuing a master's degree, you are going to have to learn a lot of information. Depending on your field, it may be mathematical formulas, scientific data, a vast body of literature -- no matter. However, in this poem, the poet acknowledges that sometimes one can suffer from information overload.



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 the poet considers all of the "stuff" of learning, he becomes bored and goes outside and looks at the night sky. Ah! He is instantly amazed, for in gazing at the sky, he is really learning. He is not bored. He is soaking in a true appreciation of the world. He can learn more by observing the real "learned astronomer" who is the creator of the "perfect silence" of the stars. It is a mystical experience for him.


So, like the poet, will the learning that you obtain from your advanced degree enrich your life? It should. If not, it will merely be proofs, figures, charts and diagrams.

No comments:

Post a Comment

In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

The crisis of a drama usually proceeds and leads to the climax.  In Shakespeare's Hamlet , the proof that Claudius is guilty...