A Comparison of Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and Raymond Carver's "Cathedral"

Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" both end with a narrator overcome by a new and deep understanding of stars or of cathedrals. Both narrators learn things that are very similar, but they go about learning them in different ways. Transcendence is a theme that both of the poems share along with the notion that science and facts can obscure deeper meanings and beauty.

Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” involves a narrator who is sitting in on a lecture regarding astronomy and the science behind it. After being presented with much proof and information from a distinguished scholar, the narrator dismisses the hands-on charts, figures, and diagrams. He does this even though his peers embrace the lecture and applaud with approval. The narrator can only begin to understand how the stars, planets, and the entire universe work by seeing things with his own eyes and in his own viewpoint.

The narrator of Whitman’s poem is similar to the narrator of “Cathedral” in that they can only see things through their own vision and senses. In “Cathedral,” the narrator has his own set ways of how he views blind people and how they live in the world. He has a sort of disdain for the blind (and quite possibly for anyone else who is different from him) in the beginning. It takes the coaxing of blind Robert to enable him to finally see beyond what he has learned in the past.

Perhaps it is the marijuana that allows the narrator to see things in a much clearer way. It is likely that the joints had an effect on his perception and acceptance because when Robert initially arrives, the narrator continues to make his assumptions about living normally as a blind man.

Robert coaxes the narrator of “Cathedral,” to draw what he thinks is a cathedral until the actual drawing is not the focus anymore. Seeing and feeling with his eyes closed allow the narrator to change his vision. He actually feels the cathedral or his idea of a cathedral. The narrator learns that the idea of what a cathedral actually is goes beyond the physicality of the building; it is what the cathedral represents to an individual.

In contrast with “When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer," the narrator of “Cathedral” needs to be coaxed to see the world in a different way. The narrator of “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” takes his own initiative to step outside and view the universe through his own eyes versus through the telescope. He cannot learn the beauty of the world around him just by listening to lectures involving numbers and diagrams. The narrator is an imaginative person with a deep appreciation of phenomenon they can see, touch, and smell. The narrator of “Cathedral” gains a deeper appreciation of feeling rather than actually seeing.

Both pieces of literature end with the notion that science can have a huge part in the making of beautiful things, but it is only child-like and romantic curiosity that make beauty seem more enchanting. While a scientific view of the world is a good way to solve many of its problems, it does not allow for nonconformity. This is why the narrator in Whitman’s poem simply gets up and leaves the lecture. It is also why the narrator of “Cathedral” has been set in his views of the world until Robert shows up.

What Robert has that the narrator lacks at the beginning of “Cathedral” is a curious wonder of the world, regardless of physical limitations. In the end, it evident that the narrator now has the same curiosity and enchantment as Robert and the narrator of “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer,” and his world will never be the same.

Reference

Pike, D. L., & Acosta, A. M. (2004). Literature: A World of Writing. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.