A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider - context Summary
Published in 1868
Published in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1868), this short poem pairs a literal spider with the speaker’s soul to consider isolation and outreach. The spider’s patient, repetitive casting of filaments becomes a focused image for human striving: the soul, set in vast space, tentatively seeks connections and anchors until a link is made. The poem reflects Whitman’s characteristic inward, philosophical tone rather than a narrative event.
Read Complete AnalysesA noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.