Poem Blog (4/10/15) (When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman)

So in this poem it seems that there is a student in a class listening to an astronomy professor lecture about the equations used for studying stars, and all the technical aspects of the science. The student feels sick and leaves, walking alone at night, occasionally looking at the stars. I wasn't entirely sure what this poem was saying when I finished reading it, but after thinking about it for a little, I think it's talking about how education can kind of take the beauty and experience out of certain things, or how we have a tendency (again, in school esp) to turn everything into an equation rather than just enjoying them for what they are. I guess it's just addressing how over explaining things, and trying to find a reason, just kills certain things.
The first half of the poem is the speaker discussing how the teacher is lecturing about diagrams and charts and equations to "measure them" (them being the stars). At this point the speaker feels uneasy- probably because the astronomer is talking about everything but the stars. the math is all the there, the science, but the actual stars, and the appreciation of the stars, aren't. The words in the second half of the poem (where he walks by himself looking at the stars) are much more intriguing and positive ("mystical moist night-air" where mystical paints the sky and night-air to be unreal and fantastical and lovely, "perfect silence"), further showing the speaker's feelings that it's better to not let the technicality destroy the beauty of things.
I think the poem also has a note of nonconformity, as the character kind of casts aside this formal education to be how he wanted to be, and learn how he wanted to (by just looking at the stars by himself), which goes against society's obsession with college and formal education.

I do kind of relate to the speaker, honestly. I've always loved space and the sky and I'm constantly afraid that taking an astronomy class might kill it for me. Like, the more I made it technical and concrete the more I would lose sight of how important it is to just appreciate the night sky. But I think the fact that I love science wold just make it more enjoyable for me, because I'd love to learn the equations and diagrams used to study stars and space and planets, and be able to not only view it as this large, abstract, wondrous thing, but as something relatable, something I could actually do something with. Like I just think being able to study something that seems larger than life with a few equations is super rad.