Below is a sample research project poem analysis, divided into a summary/paraphrase section and an AP analysis
section. This analysis was written by Professor Steve Adams from the University of Minnesota, edited slightly to fit
our format.
Part I: Summary/Paraphrase
*NOTE: Rather than write a one paragraph summary, this writer actually wrote an awesome, short essay. You
may choose either option.
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What I’m looking for in your summary paragraph(s): The speaker, the audience, the occasion, the setting,
a paraphrase of the poem, and the theme.
Be SURE to include a copy of the poem with your analysis.
Remember to include a works cited entry and parenthetical citation for your poem.
The Poem:
"When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," by 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.
The Summary/Paraphrase:
“Tired and sick” of School:
A Summary of Whitman’s "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"
This poem concerns different ways of knowing: being convinced rationally about something by hearing from the
experts as opposed to experiencing it directly, intimately, and intuitively for ourselves.
The setting for the first five lines is a lecture hall. The speaker of the poem is listening to a "learn'd astronomer" as
he lectures, presumably about astronomy. The lecture seems rather dry and abstract, though. It focuses on scientific facts
and figures all neatly arranged to appeal to human logic and reason. The lecturer offers "proofs," "figures," "charts and
diagrams" for his hearers, who are expected to test the data and hypotheses – "to add, divide, and measure them." The
lecture is apparently successful because the audience responds "with much applause."
The speaker of the poem, however, responds differently. The poem shifts in the fifth line when he gives his own
reaction: for some reason he grows "tired and sick" and must leave the lecture hall. He recovers when he gets outside by
himself, where he occasionally looks up at the stars. He does not indicate precisely what has happened (calling the whole
incident "unaccountable"), but the implications seem clear. Put off by the rational, scientific approach to the stars, he is
restored when he experiences them directly for himself. The setting shifts from the enclosed, probably stuffy classroom
with its dry facts and figures to the fresh "mystical moist night-air." Instead of hearing lecturing from the astronomer and
applause from the audience, he experiences "perfect silence." Instead of abstract "charts and diagrams," he sees, directly
and unmediated, the stars themselves. Whitman implies that this mystical, intuitive, direct way of knowing is superior to
the second-hand, rational, intellectualized understanding that the scientist offers (Whitman).
Part II: AP Prompt and Analysis Paragraph/short essay:
*Note: Rather than write 1 paragraph, this writer wrote a second short essay. You may choose either option.
What I’m looking for in your analysis paragraph(s):
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Several textual examples to support your analysis
Explain the EFFECT of the poet’s stylistic choices on the MEANING of the poem as a whole
Exploration of complexity and theme
If you MUST use an outside source(s) to assist you in your analysis, you MUST include both a works cited
entry and parenthetical citations.
The AP Prompt (written by you!):
Write a well-developed paragraph or short essay analyzing how Walt Whitman uses diction and structure to
reveal the speaker’s attitude toward true learning.
The Analysis:
Whitman uses form and poetic language to reinforce his theme that real knowledge is found through experience,
not in the classroom. Writing the poem in free verse allows him to tailor the form to the content (instead of superimposing
on it a pre-existing stanza pattern and rhyme scheme). For example, in the first half of the poem he keeps increasing the
length of the lines. He also keeps repeating words and phrases ("when," "heard the astronomer," "lecture") and
multiplying synonyms (proofs and figures, charts and diagrams, "to add, divide, and measure"). As a result, this part of the
poem begins to drag and grow repetitious and boring – just as the lecture on astronomy does for the speaker of the poem.
The repetition of "r" sounds, too ("heard the learn'd astronomer"), conveys the impression that the lecturer is droning on
and on. The form and sound of the poem then shift when the speaker leaves the lecture hall. The lines now grow
progressively shorter, and instead of droning "r" sounds we get a pleasant, musical assonance and alliteration: crisp, clean
long "i" vowels and "m" and "s" consonants ("rising," "gliding" "I," "by myself," "night," "time to time," "silence,"
"mystical, moist," "stars").
Whitman might be playing with sight as well as sound when he contrasts his two different experiences. In the
lecture hall all of the seats would be arranged in orderly rows facing the podium. Also, he indicates that the lecturer is
using “charts and diagrams” which feature figures “ranged in columns before me.” This rigid, repetitious order disappears
when the speaker of the poem flees the hall. Once outside the orderly classroom, he says that he “wander'd off” by
himself; the verb he uses suggests a spontaneous, free, irregular movement that contrasts with the straight lines that
oppressed him earlier. (Whitman may have known that “planet” derives from the Greek word meaning “wanderer.”) And
the final image of the poem is “the stars.” Whitman conjures up for us a vision of the dark night sky studded with lights
that are arranged not in neat rows but irregularly – or in constellations created by the poetic human imagination.
If we have grasped the meaning of his poem, Whitman implies, we should now stop analyzing it, close our books,
and go out to look at the stars for ourselves.