When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

About this film

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 19, 2017. Read in English by Algy Pug; Bruce Kachuk; Christine Lehman; David Lawrence; Newgatenovelist; Ezwa; fshort; Ian King; Jason in Panama; Julia Ward; Lee Ann Howlett; Maria Kasper; Matthew Datcher; notno; Phil Schempf; Peter Yearsley; Rachel Murray; Scotty Smith and Tomas Peter. Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet. He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period. As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself. ( Wikipedia ) For further information, including links to online text, reader informa…

Directors & creators

Walt Whitman

Subjects

librivox; audiobooks; literature; nature; philosophy; science; stars; astronomy

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