Classic Poem Reviews: "O You Whom I Often and Silently Come" and "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman

April is National Poetry Month. Why not take a break from your spring cleaning and head out to your favorite park with a collection of classic poetry? Get your Frisbee, pack a picnic basket, and grab your handy paperback copy of The Works of Walt Whitman. What?! You don't own The Works of Walt Whitman?! Okay. No biggie. Check out a book of his poetry at your local library, or go to http://www.poemhunter.com/, where you can search a huge database of poets and find the complete texts of most of their poems. Please look up the following two poems by Walt Whitman: "O You Whom I Often and Silently Come" and "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer."

As an English major, I suffered through a lot of classic poetry in college. I tried to grasp the hidden meanings and make sense of the outdated words, but I usually ended up feeling confused or bored...until I read the mind-blowing, outrageously excellent free-verse poetry of Walt Whitman. (Not all of Whitman's poems are free-verse. Check out Whitman's famous "O Captain! My Captain!" if you prefer poems with a rhyme scheme.) My favorite Whitman work is "Song of Myself," which is about 60 pages long. The two classic poems I have chosen to review here, in honor of National Poetry Month 2009, are quite short, painless, and perfect. Perhaps you'll check out "Song of Myself" after falling in love with "O You Whom I Often and Silently Come" and "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." I hope you do!

National Poetry Month 2009: Classic Poem Review - Walt Whitman's "O You Whom I Often and Silently Come" (1860)

Did you read the poem yet? (Click on the poem's title to read it.) It's wonderful, isn't it? 49 words total. Yet those 49 words, composed 149 years ago, perfectly capture a feeling-a moment-familiar to all of us. A 15-year-old girl in 2009 would express these feelings with different words, but with the same passion: I can't wait to see him! Oh my God, he's so perfect! I wonder what he'll be wearing today. I think I'll drop my pencil by his foot and see if he picks it up for me. Maybe I'll finally get up the nerve to actually speak to him. I wonder if he has any clue how much I like him. When I'm around him, I feel like I'm gonna melt, I swear! But he doesn't even know I'm alive.

Whitman's poem takes me back 15 years, to when I was 16, sacking groceries at Hen House Market. I "often and silently" approached the cute blonde boy who was pushing in grocery carts; sometimes I was too shy to say anything to him, and sometimes I managed to crack a sarcastic remark. I remember sitting next to him in the backseat of my friend's tiny car, on the way to a Royals baseball game, and feeling the soft sleeve of his sweatshirt brush against my arm-fleeting, subtle, electric contact. I never wanted that car ride to end. I wanted to stay close to him forever. 15 years, including 8 years of marriage, later, that same "subtle electric fire" is "for (his) sake" still "playing within me."

It's impossible to read "O You Whom I Often and Silently Come" and not think of someone special in our lives. Perhaps that person never knew how special he/she was to us; the "subtle electric fire" may have eventually died out, silently. But the memory of that fire is burned into us forever.

National Poetry Month 2009: Classic Poem Review - Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (1865)

Now let's discuss one of Whitman's philosophical poems: "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." (Please read it by clicking the poem's title above.) I love this poem because, again, it's both concise and profound. "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" expresses that dichotomy between "book" knowledge and "emotional/experiential" knowledge, between the tangible and the intangible. The "learn'd astronomer" is rewarded with "much applause." But the astronomer's "charts and diagrams" and his facts and "proofs" aren't enough to hold the poet's interest. "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick" (line 5), he says. It is not until the poet has "wander'd off" alone "in the mystical moist night-air" that he can truly appreciate the stars above. The astronomer sits at his desk calculating distance to the stars based on luminosity, generating money and acclaim for his knowledge, while the poet has a "mystical" experience walking outside beneath those stars.

Sometimes I imagine that "book" knowledge is more valuable than the knowledge I gain with my own senses and heart. Whitman's poem reminds me to look beyond the dusty facts and figures, to the beauty and harmony expressed in the natural world all around me. What truths will I discover in the "perfect silence"?

Walt Whitman's observations are always honest and deeply personal, evocative and engaging. The bold sensuality of his poetry takes my breath away. And the language he uses is a lot more accessible than many other classic poets'. I'm jealous of the way Whitman feels things, and even more jealous of the perfect words he uses to describe his feelings.

Walt Whitman is truly one of our greatest American poets, and I hope that this brief introduction to his work will encourage you to seek out more of his poetry. Happy National Poetry Month 2009!

Works Cited

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/o-you-whom-i-often-and-silently-come/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-i-heard-the-learned-astronomer/

Whitman, Walt. The Works of Walt Whitman, pages 125 & 250. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, Ltd., 1995.