this & that he studied

A haphazard scholar.

turn it over

The Talmud records that Ben Bag-Bag, a scholar and disciple of Hillel, counseled:
   “Turn it over and turn it over, for all is therein”
The ‘it’ is the Torah, but the same could be said of reading and studying a great poem.

just say it

“In this essay I propose to study the development of...,” is an example of what makes academic essays insufferable.

eyes glazed over

The scholar, after spending many hours annotating the text, was glossy-eyed.

brain drain

After the Enlightenment the exegetes fled from the Bible to literature; hence we have scholarly critics.

need to know, paid to know

He knew more about poetry than anyone who wasn’t getting paid to be in the know.

flipping through pages

A scholar whose studies could only be described as desultory.

uses of erudition

A scholarly erudition employed for uncovering versus a speculative erudition used for discovery.

another book in the wall

The last scholar chained to a carrel amid the library stacks.

leaning late

Last night was the 16th Wallace Stevens Birthday Bash featuring Robert Pinsky reading the poetry of Wallace Stevens.

"The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm" was one of the poems Pinsky chose to discuss at length. Here are a few lines:

    The words were spoken as if there was no book,
    Except that the reader leaned above the page,

    Wanted to lean, wanted much most to be
    The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom

    The summer night is like a perfection of thought.